Old Konoha
by Gini.R
Summary: Shisui leans over weakly and whispers in Itachi's ear: The jinchuuriki is alive. Kakashi hears Jiraiya's deep rumble: Focus, not all life is bad. Shikamaru's father strains against his chains to rasp: I'm proud of you, son. Far beneath the ground in the catacombs of Konoha, a thin pale hand grips a seven-year-old boy and softly mutters: Naruto. Your given name is Uzumaki Naruto.
1. Prologue

Shisui leans over weakly and whispers in Itachi's ear _: The jinchuuriki is_ _alive_. Kakashi hears Jiraiya's deep rumble: _Focus, not all life is bad_. Shikamaru's father strains against his chains to rasp: _I'm proud of you, son_. Far beneath the ground in the catacombs of Konoha, a thin pale hand grips a seven-year-old boy and softly mutters: _Naruto. Your given name is Uzumaki Naruto_.

Prologue

Kakashi was sobbing for the first time since he was a baby. Except this white-haired man wasn't his father, but Jiraiya. The big man was seated next to him in a damp and shady part of the forest outside Konoha, an arm around his shoulders.

"I failed them all." Kakashi bit out. "First my team, then Sandaime-sama, Minato-sensei, Kushina-nee, and Naruto."

He could hardly say Naruto's name. His sensei's son had only been a day old, had not had the Kyuubi sealed into him for more than eight hours before Danzo, the new Hokage, determined the jinchuuriki too dangerous and murdered him before Kakashi, Jiraiya, Shikaku or anyone could secure the baby away from Danzo's Root ANBU.

"The _prodigious_ Hatake: a lonely failure of a monster. I should've done something, _anything_ …I don't know what to do now." He muttered miserably.

"We'll grieve for a long time, Kakashi." Jiraiya finally spoke. "But we still have to pull together our focus. No floundering. There are still important people in the world, comrades that need our help."

They sat in the forest for a while, but couldn't stay too long so as not to raise suspicion from the new government. Jiraiya squeezed Kakashi's shoulder, and handed him a cloth-covered piece of cheese with coordinates and a time carved into the surface. "Remember, kiddo, our life is bad. But not all life is bad."

That night, in the remains of one of Orochimaru's illegal labs, members of the self-proclaimed Old Konoha met for the first time.


	2. Chapter 1

7th Year of Danzo's Rule

Nara Shikamaru silently trudged through the village on his way to the academy. The air was still cool and damp as the sun had yet to rise and suck the moisture away. Hardly anyone was awake and walking through the lamplight streets at this hour, but Shikamaru knew that somewhere his classmates were also making their way to Room 404, curfew-exemption cards hung on a long cord on each of their necks. Academy students were required to complete at least two extracurricular studies, and the only time they were provided for these studies was before the school officially opened at 7:30.

He and his classmates enjoyed a somewhat unusually close relationship. Whether it was because many of their parents were close, or because of the encouragement of their sensei, Iruka, or simply because they bonded through the pain and boredom of D rank missions, he knew that such unity was unsettling to the government and that they were therefore watched by the government. Shikamaru wondered at the paranoia of the Hokage, that he would worry about a bunch of seven-year-olds, but he also had a keen sense that he and his classmates were not normal seven-year-olds, ninja training aside.

As he noiselessly made his way up the stairs and down the hall, he could see the light shining under the door to Room 404. Hinata was always there first, followed usually by Ino. Today, the extracurricular study was linguistics and code—easy enough to teach themselves, and definitely exciting as they were beginning to form their own secret code and language. Despite the fun it was for them to have their own form of communication, unknown to senseis, parents, or even older siblings, it also proved to be useful.

The temperature in the room wasn't any warmer than it was outside, but the sight of his friends made it seem so. Rather than desks, they sat at two long wooden tables and in large cushioned chairs that were challenging to climb into. Once everyone had arrived, Sakura pulled out copies of a story she wrote and handed one to everyone for them to translate. The eight of them were silent until Iruka-sensei came up to get them for class. Hinata, Ino, Sakura, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Sasuke, and Shikamaru all filed out of Room 404 and into classroom 205. Not for the first time, Shikamaru had the feeling that they were missing something, or someone.

Itachi waited patiently for his father to finish reading and signing a report. Uchiha Fugaku was looking more harried and sallow, lately. He was desperately trying to keep the clan together, but seven years of maltreatment from the government was too much for his father, the elders, and the clan as a whole. Itachi studied his father, the slight tremor in his hands from stress, the reddened eyes from lack of sleep, and the soft way he glanced in his son's direction, as if he knew the terrible news Itachi brought with him but didn't blame his son in any way. Itachi gripped the crisp scroll tighter, anger and sadness curling in his stomach, as he realized the clan head had given up. This scroll would be the last demands Danzo would make of the Uchiha.

The Uchiha Police Force was being disbanded on the basis that the strict way of life imposed by the dictatorship and enforced by its military, the Root shinobi, hardly allowed for internal village crimes, and therefore such an operation was unnecessary. It was only through sheer will and the political machinations of Fugaku and the other shinobi clan heads that kept the largest public government dissenter, the people's protectors, from disbanding sooner. What's more, Danzo wanted members of the police force to be assimilated into Root. Itachi felt his eyes twinge at the thought. _Assimilated_. They'd be tortured and reprogramed into more Root drones. He focused again on his father.

"Please, say something, Tou-san."

Fugaku sighed. "I'm afraid, Itachi. With Nara-san and Hyuuga-san in prison and Jiraiya-sama missing for the last four years, the resistance is losing hope and power. It's been too long since our side had a good day. At least this way, the rest of the clan will be left alone. As clan head to clan head, Itachi, keep our people safe."

Kakashi stared at the gates to the rainy city. The grey clouds and grey buildings all blended together, the only pop of color he saw was the orange umbrella he carried over his shoulder. He really did not want to go any closer. The whole place was so drab and unwelcoming…though he did enjoy the company of some of the other ninjas. They all had quite funny characters. With a sigh he ambled up to the entrance, the mud squelching in his sandals and between his toes. He would be reprimanded for walking inside with messy feet, but he refused to wear anything other than the open-toed sandals he'd always worn.

It took him about an hour to finally reach his destination.

"You're late, Kakashi."

"Ah. Sorry, Leader-sama. I got lost on the road of life."

In a darkened corner of the room, an orange-masked nin twitched and sent him a loathing glare.


	3. Chapter 2

7th Year of Danzo's Rule

Sasuke watched as the Root shinobi marched the members of the Uchiha Police Force out of the compound. His mother's trembling hand gripped his shoulder and shoved him behind her. His cousins, uncles, the men that greeted him every time he use to visit his father at the station, who helped him with his training and homework, who told him jokes and stories were all leaving. The looked haggard and wary, but kept their postures strong. He saw his cousin Shisui turn and give him a gentle smile and a wink as he walked by, but Sasuke could only stare and try not to cry. Itachi was further down the road, nodding to each former police member as they passed, his face for once not emotionless, but solemn and determined.

Uchiha civilians and the remaining shinobi had all lined the street leading outside the compound to hail goodbye to the police force. Seven years of fighting and losing kept them from revolting now. Late last night, he had heard Itachi telling their mother that across the village, other members of the resistance were being torn from their homes and sent to the Root training camp also. Then he'd been quickly caught in his eavesdropping.

Instead of reprimanding him though, Kaa-san just said, "Sasuke, you will attend a special meeting with me three nights from now. But you mustn't share what you hear with anyone. I'm sure you've learned the importance of secrecy at the academy?"

Itachi had been surprised and slightly angry. "Kaa-san, please, don't involve Sasuke."

"I can do it!" Sasuke yelled at his brother before being shushed. "I'm not a baby, Itachi. We work hard at the academy."

Their mother stopped them from starting an argument. "Itachi, with Fugaku leaving, Sasuke is going to need to help. I can't keep it a secret from him for too much longer, he already knows something is going on. Sasuke, you're going to be given an important job. At this meeting, I want you to memorize everyone's face; you'll be running messages between us."

It was then that Sasuke's father arrived. His eyes dimmed as Kaa-san informed him of Sasuke's new task, but he smiled sadly and ruffled his hair. "You're going to be a brave shinobi, Sasuke. You're quick, and nimble and keen, but please be careful too."

Sasuke had felt his breath catch. His father rarely gave praise. Fugaku had then lifted Sasuke on his hip like he used to before Sasuke attended the academy and went to take him upstairs to his room. As he leaned over him in the dark to pull the blankets up, Sasuke felt something warm and wet drip onto his face, and in a fit of childish fear he grabbed his father's sleeve.

"Tou-san, don't leave."

But Fugaku just gently kissed his forehead and cracked the bedroom door behind him.

Sasuke finally spotted his father in the rows of the former police. He looked as proud and solemn as always, and he didn't turn toward him or his mother as he passed. He didn't look toward Itachi either. He just left. Head held high, footsteps firm, and only the memory of the previous night to remind Sasuke that Fugaku loved his family.

Itachi finally joined them and Sasuke realized that he wasn't even as tall as their mother yet. He stepped closer to his brother. "Do you have time to train with me, nii-san? Before you get too busy with the clan?"

"A half-hour, Sasuke." He poked him in the forehead with two fingers and guided Sasuke to the training fields. "We'll be back soon, Kaa-san."

* * *

When Sasuke arrived the next day at the academy, his peers were all staring at him. He took off his curfew-exemption card and placed it on a hook with his backpack. Today's extracurricular study was strategy. Which really meant they all played games. Sasuke started to make his way across from Shino and his Go board, knowing that the other boy wouldn't question him too much, but Ino stopped him.

"Sasuke, I think we all need to discuss what happened over the weekend."

Sasuke scowled. "The members of the Uchiha Police Force were sent to the Root training camp. That's all."

"No, its not!" Ino's voice was shrill. "My father was taken as well. And Kiba's sister. You already know that Shikamaru's father and Hinata's uncle were arrested a long time ago. I think we all need to share what we know, figure out what's going on, and do something about it!"

Shikamaru groaned. "Ino, whatever we do about it, if we can do anything, is going to have to be subtle. We're still academy students. Besides, this persecution has been going on at least since we were born."

"Still," Kiba interjected. "Ino's right, we should share what we know. Get all the information we can, right? My Kaa-san said more arrests are going to be made, we need to be prepared."

The eight of them stared at each other in the lamplight before shuffling closer at the large table. Surprisingly it was Hinata that started.

"I know th-that Root steals shinobi and orphaned children. The Hyuuga's have reports of Root members with the Byakugan that are speculated to be various orphans from the wars or the Kyuubi attack."

Hinata was not only referring to the shinobi wars before they were born, but the short-lived resistance, not quite a civil war, that occurred four years ago. Sasuke and his classmates were too young to remember, but Hinata's father, Choji's father, and many other various shinobi all died in the brief rebellion.

"I can attest to this," Shino shared. "The Aburame's have similar records of missing orphaned children and even two genin members that went MIA on separate missions, and investigations never found another hidden village or missing nin to be at fault. I assume that when we graduate from the academy and become genin we will have to be careful not to meet the same fate."

Sakura wrinkled her nose. "Hokage-sama is not trying to be subtle anymore. Root is so large now. Even my tou-san commented on how many 'white-faced bastards' have been roaming the village these days."

Choji glanced at Sakura. "Your tou-san shouldn't speak so poorly of the Root shinobi. Any village member, shinobi or civilian, will be severely punished for treasonous acts. I've seen it happen to several clan members. Upmost loyalty to the Hokage and the government is required...We should get back to strategy practice before Iruka-sensei arrives."

Sasuke watched his classmates stand to reorganize themselves around the games. He hesitated for a half-second before saying, "Wait. I should let you know I've been asked to attend a secret meeting two nights from tonight. I'm not sure it has much to do with this, but with all the precaution and secrecy for it, it is nothing small. I'm to run messages between its members eventually, and I can guess I'll pick up information while doing so."

With that, they split up, and Sasuke headed toward Shino and the Go board.

* * *

Kakashi was in the kitchen with Kisame. Of all the Akatsuki members, Kisame was the most entertaining, especially in the kitchen. He was currently trying to cook fish, but if the burnt scent wafting across the counter top and through Kakashi's mask was any indication, Kisame was failing.

"Maybe you should stick to seaweed and salads, Kisame-san. The cannibalistic diet doesn't seem to be working out."

Kisame growled. "I'm not a fish, you masked-bastard. Besides, anything I cook will be ten times better than what you cook, and I don't want to be eating ration bars the entire mission."

Kakashi just hummed and turned the page of his book. "Ooh!" He lifted his scratched hitai-ate away from Obito's eye to study the picture in the book closer. The book had a special seal on it that allowed for Jiraiya to contact him. Words only visible to a sharingan appeared on top of the picture. _Uchiha police disbanded. Former members and suspects of Old Konoha sent to Root camp._

Well that was unfortunate news. At this rate Danzo's empire would eradicate Old Konoha. Four years ago, after the first and only rebellion and civil war against Danzo, too many members were lost. Jiraiya could no longer head the meetings and had to flee Konoha, leaving the sparse members to gradually regroup. Kakashi knew that his old friend, Gai, was a strong leader of Old Konoha, and he wondered if Uchiha Mikoto would take over her husband's place. He wished them strength and bravery. Though he longed to help his village, Kakashi knew that he would be more useful by waiting outside the walls as a criminal rather than in prison. A small part of him also wondered if he could ever live life as a normal, loyal-nin again though. All he had been through for Konoha, and both the freedoms and hardships he experienced as a missing-nin, the thought of such a regulated and settled lifestyle made his stomach churn. Kakashi abruptly shut his book and turned to his partner.

"Well, Kisame-san. Let's go find Deidara-san and persuade him to join our merry band of vicious outlaws. Maybe when we return, Tobi will have prepared us a proper meal."

Kakashi winked at the orange-masked nin entering the kitchen before hefting up his pack and following Kisame out the window.


	4. Chapter 3

8th year of Danzo's Rule

A scrawny blond boy emerged from his cell, stiff and tired. Dirty hands rubbed at his blue eyes before being tucked under his armpits. It looked like today would be another day of not going up the tunnel and into the open air. If it was already this cold underground, then it would doubtlessly be freezing above. The compound had three floors of underground cells, with the child's located on the middle floor. The cell was his prison, and his refuge. It was awful when he was locked in with no food and nothing to do, but it also kept him safe from the prisoners who sometimes scared him. Occasionally, there was a short (but still taller than him), white masked nin that escorted him to visit the Hokage or to the testing grounds, but the boy hadn't seen the other in a long time.

The boy decided he wanted some soup from the canteen today. It would warm his hands and his stomach, even if it never properly filled him. Breaking into and awkward sort of run, as his hands were still tucked under his arms, he pattered through the dusty halls and wove in between the masked soldiers to the end of the soup line. The soldiers all mostly ignored him, though the prisoners serving the food almost always sneered. The boy usually just sneered back. He knew he could look fearsome, if he pulled his lips back and let his teeth bite down on his bottom lip, he'd draw blood and the prisoners would immediately glance away. He didn't do it often, only if the prisoners were violent and the soldiers weren't around to stop them. The action made him feel like just what they called him, a monster.

After eating, the boy decided to wander to the fourth level underground. There was usually always something interesting happening on the dark floor. He quietly maneuvered the down-sloping switchbacks before entering the last floor through a heavy wooden door. The light was on in Orochimaru-sensei's lab, and he hesitantly walked down the first hall.

Like all the prisoners, Orochimaru-sensei wore a chakra suppressant collar. The man was thin and would be sickly looking if the gold in his eyes didn't shine so viciously and angrily. The boy didn't like Orochimaru, he was frightening and mean, often telling him stories of the children he used to experiment on, but he also learned plenty from the brilliant man. Plus, Orochimaru was one of the only prisoners that would talk to him.

Today in Orochimaru's lab there was a dark, curly haired teen sitting on a table. A collar was lying next to his hand, which was gripping the table edge tightly. Orochimaru's back was straight as a board, his hands also clenched tightly. The ceiling light flickered once, twice, before steadying and the heavy pressure in the room lessened. The teen was pale and shaking, with gasping blue lips and blood running down his face from his red spinning eyes. The blond froze at the terrifying sight, but before the teen's gaze could lock with his, a violent nudge from the back of his mind forced him to stare at the ground instead.

A thud made him look back, finding Orochimaru on the ground and the teen standing and swaying, his arm reaching toward the blond in the doorway.

"Please…help me."

The boy flinched away and shook his head. "What did you do to him?"

"I won't hurt you, I promise. Just please. Please, help me hide." The dark haired teen faltered, and without knowing why, maybe because he sensed honesty in those words or the pure desperation tugged at his heart, the blond boy reached out and shuffled the teen out of the lab.

Angling up the tunnels was a difficult endeavor, and by the time they reached the boy's cell, he was all but dragging the teen from under the arms. Sweat dripped down his neck, and if he was cold earlier, he certainly wasn't now. He pulled the other boy into his cell and rolled him under the cot, stuffing his long limbs in after. The boy decided to make another trip to the canteen and grab some more soup; he knew what it was like to be exhausted and hungry.

The server gave him a suspicious glare at seeing him again, but the boy managed to carefully sneak out and take the soup back to his cell. When he returned, the teen was already awake and bleakly staring at the underside of his cot. He rolled slightly toward the boy, taking the bowl with shaking arms and beginning to eat carefully slowly.

"I'm Shisui." The teen murmured.

But the blond boy just quietly stared with large blue eyes and a downturned mouth, watching the teen eat. Nothing else was said.

* * *

Sasuke briefly felt Ino slip behind his eyes and read the inscription on the block of cheese in his hands before he recovered the food with the brown cloth. Takeda-san grinned as he accepted the money Sasuke's client had provided when asking for the D-rank mission. Sasuke spent a lot of time in the market, as Tuesday and Thursday afternoons were now allotted for academy students to work missions, and Iruka-sensei always assigned him grocery shopping. The messages carved into the apples and cheeses, or printed on the steamed buns and small meats were always short, but his peers soon learned it was best to have both Sasuke and Ino read them; the words were easy to forget.

His client today was a strange one, with purple stripes under his eyes and an annoying countenance. Sasuke met him at a park west of the market, where the man was sitting on a bench reading, letting his dog play with the nearby children.

"Aren't you a little young to be taking missions?"

Sasuke squared his shoulders and glared at the lazy but amused man. "Academy students in their fourth year and above can take D-ranked missions on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Besides, there are only three more years until I graduate."

"Hm, I suppose. But, you do seem a little short." Sasuke would have retorted, but the man continued with the exact lines that were his cue to share the message. His half-lidded eyes widened as he stared over Sasuke's shoulder. "Oh my, what a beautiful lady walking a beautiful dog."

Sasuke turned to see a kunoichi with dark hair and red eyes calmly walking a large dog. Sasuke sniffed, "She'll never date you. She's a ninja. Do you even know what chakra is?"

The man sighed. "You're right. I could never keep up with her. But, if there's anything I've learned from my favorite romance novels, it's that you never know if you don't try."

He pulled a piece of paper from his backpack, scrawling a note on it. "Here, give this to the lady, will you? I'm much too shy to talk to her myself."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, handing the man his groceries and accepting the note. He could feel Ino in the back of his mind, waiting this whole time to read the note along with him, and discretely glanced at it. His nose was slightly wrinkled and he sensed Ino shaking as he handed the kunoichi the slip of paper. Her red eyes drank in the words before she gave a short katon to the message, shouting "Pervert!" as she stalked away.

Sasuke paled at her violent reaction, and turned to see how the weird man took it, but there was no longer anyone on the bench.

He pondered the meaning of the two messages on his way back to the academy. To the man: _Operation Underground at a standstill_. To the woman: _Tobi remembers_.


	5. Chapter 4

8th Year of Danzo's Rule

It was cool and damp in Ame. Once again, Kakashi couldn't sleep. Was this the fourth night in a row that nightmares and restlessness plagued him? He sat despondently at the window, watching the rainfall in the night, his thoughts again on the painful past and worrisome future.

Sometimes he felt so alone in the midst of the Akatsuki, his stomach would ache and his head and heart would pulse painfully and he'd be reminded that no one here was truly his friend or his ally, certainly not his masked former teammate that had a penchant for disappearing. He had seen Tobi ( _Obito_ , his mind supplied) again this morning and the meeting had not been pleasant.

Kakashi was just about finished with his training, sweaty and tired and hungry when the masked nin swirled into existence right in front of his kunai. Kakashi, recognizing the chakra and the infamous technique, managed to kamui himself away from his reckless former teammate.

"You should have just thrown it, you bastard."

Kakashi sighed. "You know I couldn't have, Tobi."

Tobi then rushed him, attempting to fight, but Kakashi just used kamui again to reach the kitchen where Kisame was cooking. The blue-skinned man didn't so much as flinch, used to this routine. Tobi never displayed his true, suicidal antics in front of the other Akatsuki members, but Kakashi had told Kisame.

"That weirdo tried to get you to kill him again, right?"

Kakashi didn't reply. He just slumped down in the chair and tried to stop his hands from shaking and his left eye from bleeding.

Even now, as he stared out at the endless rain, Kakashi replayed Obito's words from eight years ago. _My death will be at your hands, I'll accept nothing less._

* * *

Shikamaru shuffled his feet and slowly trudged to the Hokage Tower. Under his right arm was his Shogi board, in his left hand his uneaten lunch. Since his father was arrested three years ago, Shikamaru had been allowed to visit him every now and then. He was always notified by an ANBU while on his way to class early in the morning, and none of his clan or peers knew about the abrupt visits.

He silently opened the wooden doors, trudged through the lobby, and up the stairs. After flashing his notice he received from the ANBU that morning at the secretary, he was waived through.

The Hokage's office was dark. Though the sunlight from the windows behind the desk filtered in, the light didn't seem to reach its straight fingers far enough into the room to brighten it. Shikamaru bowed slightly and stared at the bandaged, dark haired man scrawling his pen across paperwork. He wondered how the old man could see what he was writing in such little light. The Hokage slowly looked up at Shikamaru, as if sensing the academy student's doubts about his eyesight.

"Thank you for coming, Shikamaru. We will go down now."

Shikamaru followed the Hokage out of his office and down the spiral stairs. At least eight floors were passed, and his shorter legs struggled not to trip as they descended at an impatient pace. He knew what this was. The Hokage was using Shikamaru, and everything he represented (family, clan, youth, future) to ensure his father's cooperation. Parading him through what was essentially the dungeons of the Tower and "allowing" them time together was simply a trick to remind Shikaku to only act as a jounin commander and strategist that would benefit the Hokage's plans.

His father's prison cell was his office, and Shikamaru tried to mentally prepare himself as they neared the door. Two, tall ROOT ANBU guarded the entrance, and a smaller ROOT member was also on standby, ready to scan and run messages from Shikaku to the jounin headquarters. They all bowed to the Hokage, not even turning their white faces toward Shikamaru, and one of the tall agents turned to follow them into the cell.

"Shikaku, your son is here to visit you. You have two hours." The Hokage left, sending a meaningful glance to the ROOT ANBU stationed in the corner.

Shikamaru set his bento on his father's desk, watching as Shikaku opened it and tried not to eat too ravenously, and began setting up the Shogi board. His father looked worse each time Shikamaru visited. His hair was too long, the bags under his eyes too dark, and his face too grey and thin. But when he reached out to pat Shikamaru on the head and bring him into a hug, his hands were steady and his arms were strong.

They were not allowed to speak, or the ROOT shinobi would kill Shikamaru, but they managed a great deal of communication between facial expressions and playing Shogi. Shikamaru always lost the game, but always learned.

 _Don't give up._

 _Protect your comrades._

 _A good leader learns from his people; gets to know his people._

 _Danzo is not a good leader._

His dad shook his head, a warning sign in his eyes.

 _Don't be so bitter._

 _Mom misses you._

Always, after losing the Shogi game, Shikamaru would use whatever time remained of the two hours to curl up next to his father and silently read from his school textbooks.

When the Hokage returned to escort Shikamaru out, he always said the same thing. He placed his hand on his shoulder and murmured a _thank you, Shikamaru_ and blankly bored his dark eyes into Shikaku's. The prison door would shut, and Shikamaru didn't know when he would be summoned to see his father again.

* * *

The scrawny boy just stared at Shisui. He'd bring him food, and watch him eat. He'd bring him scrolls, and watch him read. He'd shove him under his cot every time a guard passed, and sit on the floor opposite Shisui and watch him suppress his chakra signature down to nothing. It was tedious.

Shisui sighed, nodding to the meal the kid had brought him. "Do you like soup?"

The kid just continued staring with large, blue eyes and Shisui almost scoffed. Of course he liked soup; it was all they ever served in this awful place.

This was the fourth day of silence, but he kept trying.

"Do you like to read?"

Nothing.

"Can you read?"

Nothing.

"I know you know what I'm saying." He gently put his bowl down and slid it toward the boy, giving a nod of thanks.

"You do know that if they find me here, we'll both be punished?"

At that, the boy pulled his under eyelids down and stuck his tongue out. Well, at least it was a reaction, if a rude one. Shisui was about to crawl under the cot again and take a nap, but a high pitched voice was suddenly heard.

"Is Orochimaru-sensei still going to teach me?"

Shisui eyed him. "Why wouldn't he?"

A small scowl was drawn. "You did something to him. With your bloody eyes."

"It was a genjutsu, an illusion. I'm sure if you go barging in his lab again he will be back at his experiments." He noticed the tension easing from the thin shoulders. "What was he teaching you?"

At that question, the blond's eyes lit up. "About chakra! And, sealing. I have to practice calligraphy a lot, but I can already do the storage seal and explosion seal. Sometimes, I try to copy the seal on my tummy, but it's too complicated."

Seal on his tummy? Why would such a young boy have a permanent seal on himself? Shisui paled. The child was about the right age, if a little smaller than his cousin, Sasuke-kun. The blond hair, blue eyes, and whiskered cheeks were all taken into account.

"Can I see this seal on your tummy? I bet it's pretty cool."

The boy chirped an agreement and only hesitated slightly before taking his shirt off. Shisui had to gulp down the surprised curse words. Not only was the blond too thin, but sure enough there was a thick, curling black seal on his stomach and a ropey, starburst shaped scar on his chest. Shisui reached out to touch it, but the boy gained a fearful look in his eyes and shrank back.

"It's okay, you can put your shirt back on," Shisui whispered. "Kiddo, you never did tell me your name, you know?"

The boy frowned. "Everyone calls me 'jinchuriki', but Orochimaru-sensei calls me 'brat'."

Shisui sucked in a breath. "You don't know your name?"

Another frown. "Hokage-sama says I'm not worthy of a name."

They stared at each other for a moment longer. "Of course you're worthy of a name, everyone is given one from their parents."

"Don't have parents."

"Yes, you do kiddo. Everyone has parents, it's how people are made, and your parents gave you a name."

He could see longing and uncertainty in the boy's eyes. He bit his lip before quietly murmuring, "I don't know my name."

Shisui remembers Mikoto-san's redheaded friend, bright and happy, always bringing sweets for Itachi and himself. He remembers a tall, shaggy blond haired man softly congratulating him on his graduation from the Academy. He remembers the pain the village went through at the death of the two, and the terror realizing Sandaime-sama had also died, sealing the Kyuubi into their young child, and the relief that many of Konoha's ninja and civilians felt upon learning Danzo had killed the child, and the tear streaked face of his cousin (practically his nii-san), Obito, as he kissed Shisui's forehead that dark night before leaving forever. Shisui remembers Sasuke-kun's disgruntled look as he talked about his classmates at the Academy, a muttered _it just feels like someone is missing_ slipping out of the dark haired boy's mouth.

Shisui slowly reached out so as not to startle the blond, anger and sadness making his pale hand shake slightly as he grips the bony shoulder. "Naruto. Your given name is Uzumaki Naruto."


	6. Chapter 5

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You're all super kind!**

 **So, if you hadn't noticed this is my first story and I wasn't sure about leaving author's notes because some people do and some people don't and whenever they're too long I personally just skip them. But, one reviewer pointed out that I could provide some important info.**

 **No, I don't have a regular update schedule, I'm in a pretty rigorous major in school so studying comes first (unless I procrastinate like I'm doing now). I do find this stress relieving lol and I don't plan on the story being of epic length and long-winded, so I do plan to update kind of a lot and I plan on finishing it. I kind of find myself having trouble writing anything that doesn't get to the point of the story, so I know some chapters are super short (i.e. ch 2 is like a continuation of the prologue...oops).**

 **Anyway, this chapter is longer, and darker, and things are FINALLY picking up!**

 **Thanks again for reading :) and reviewing ;)**

* * *

8th year of Danzo's Rule

It was nearing curfew and Itachi was walking the perimeter of the Uchiha clan compound. After check-in at six-thirty o'clock, a civilian Uchiha was missing. Taro was the six year-old son of Uchiha Akako, a seamstress whose jounin husband had been taken to the Root training camps. The poor mother had come sobbing and shaking to the clan head's house, and while Itachi's mother sat her down and gave her tea, Itachi quickly left to search for the boy. But what would a civilian boy, younger than Sasuke-kun, be doing out so late? Itachi would sneak out of the compound if he had to, but there were still eight minutes until the curfew.

Near the west gate, he spotted a white-masked figure carrying a small lump. As he neared, Itachi saw that it was Taro, clutching a brown sack and tear streaks running down his cheeks. The Root ANBU shoved the boy into Itachi's arms, and he was alarmed to feel sticky blood through the back of Taro's shirt.

"Why is he hurt? He is just a boy, and a civilian at that!"

The Root shinobi turned his blank face toward Itachi. "Stealing is not permitted. He was appropriately punished. Three lashes for three stolen dumplings."

Itachi tried to keep the scowl off of his face. "A lash is not a punishment, just a fear tactic."

The Root member tilted his head slightly before leaping off. Itachi felt his finger twitch, but turned his focus to the quivering child in his arms. Murmuring soft words, he smoothed Taro's short hair back and bounded toward his friend, Izumi's, house.

Once there, he patiently rapped on her door. It opened just a crack before Izumi recognized him and ushered him in. Taro was quietly taken from his arms as Izumi carried the boy to the back of the house, already gently removing his bloody shirt.

"Taro-kun, I'm going to fix you up and ease the pain, okay? We don't want your kaa-san to see you so messy, right?" Izumi's hand lit up with mild green chakra as she started wiping the blood from the boy's back.

Taro would be traumatized for a while, but Izumi would heal him just fine. His friend was sometimes too altruistic for her own good, but he knew through experience she would hardly listen to his criticisms.

As she worked, Itachi studied the room. After the death of her parents, Izumi moved to the outskirts of the compound, to a small, dark house. He studied the photos of the family she had hung on the walls. Her father was not an Uchiha, and so they had been (and Izumi was still) out-casted. A thought came to him; he vaguely remembered another outcast that had lived in this same house, his excitable cousin, Obito. The house seemed to be a desolate shelter for lonely pariahs. If he didn't have to worry so much about external affairs, maybe he could've focused on bettering the Uchiha clan.

When Izumi was finished, the three of them silently walked back to Itachi's house, Taro riding on the girl's back. At the front steps, before he opened the door, Itachi handed Taro his brown sack. The boy shied away.

"I don't want them anymore."

Understandable. The dumplings had gotten him hurt, and while he shouldn't have stolen them, the food was his to eat now. Itachi lightly poked the boy in the forehead.

"Take them, Taro-kun. They are yours now."

Once the relieved mother and again sobbing boy left to return to their own house, Itachi, Izumi, Sasuke, and Mikoto were left standing in the kitchen. Mikoto looked as youthful as ever, if not for the slight silvering at her temples and the leaner and more stressed face. She sighed and ran her hands over her eyes before gripping the countertop until her knuckles turned white.

"Stealing food is not a good sign. We'll have to keep a closer eye on the rations."

Itachi jumped in. His mother did not need any added stress. "I'll take care of it, Kaa-san. Let's get some rest and look into it tomorrow."

She nodded and kissed him on the cheek as she exited the room. She walked Izumi to the front door, murmuring her thanks for healing the boy.

Itachi turned; Sasuke was staring at him flatly. "Aren't you going to walk your girlfriend home?"

He stiffened, not sure how to reply. He none-too-gently poked Sasuke's forehead and turned toward the front room to put on his sandals.

* * *

Three weeks later, Sasuke was facing Sakura on the Academy training grounds. It was taijustu practice, and as with every other activity, they were paired together. Whether it was a teamwork exercise, a spar, or a project, Sasuke and Sakura were partners. The other members of their class usually worked in their teams of three, or had usual partners when only two were needed, and Sasuke and Sakura just happened to always be the ones left over. It was fine, though they had a rough start, they worked well together.

Sakura was smart and responsible, and when she wanted something finished, she worked tenaciously. Originally one of the weakest students, she was now the top kunoichi and Sasuke could respect her hard work. That didn't mean she didn't lose every single spar between them.

Tripping Sakura by placing his foot behind hers so she was off balance, Sasuke won yet again. Judging by her glare, he knew she would get back at him in some way. Vindictive, Sakura was. Forgiving, she was not.

Sure enough, once they were back in the classroom, Sakura not-so-subtlety kicked the leg of his chair as she passed his desk, causing it to jerk to the side. After righting himself, Sasuke gave a long suffering sigh. As a peace offering, he asked for help with tree walking later in the week.

Once Iruka-sensei released the students, Sasuke waited for Sakura to finish packing her bag and say goodbye to Ino. Academy students were supposed to go right home after class or to the designated training grounds until curfew, but Sasuke offered to walk Sakura home. Once they became genin, they would be teammates, and though neither had any idea who would be the third member; it didn't hurt to spend time getting to know each other now. Besides, Sasuke had a message for Sakura's parents, two Konoha business owners with plenty of sway in the civilian council and some of the few non-shinobi with Old Konoha ideals.

They walked silently down the street, and again Sasuke got the distinct feeling that someone was missing. He hoped whoever the Hokage assigned as their third team member was more personable than either of them. The houses in the neighborhood gradually grew larger and more traditional, the lots more spacious, and the gardens well-manicured. The civilians they passed sneered at the two students. Ninja were not nicely viewed by many anymore, and it was seen as a disgrace that Sakura had chosen the profession rather than following in her parents' footsteps.

As they turned the corner, a large crowd was seen at the end of the Harunos' street. Shouts and crashes were heard, and Root nin were swarming the roof of Sakura's house. Neighbors were watching, nosy and fearful, and wary enough to not get too close. Sasuke just managed to grab Sakura's elbow and pull her into the alley before she ran off.

"Quietly," he hissed as they shuffled away. "Sakura, you don't want to be caught up in whatever is going on. Let's do reconnaissance first."

They crept behind the houses before stopping across the street from the Sakura's and watched from the shadows. Sakura's father, Kizashi, held her mother, Mebuki, as she sobbed. They were stood on their front lawn watching as Root nin trashed their house, destroying furniture, books, and belongings, searching for any telling sign of treason. A pile of books was also on the lawn, just starting to burn and fill the air with acrid smoke.

Sakura gasped. "That's our entire library! With our history books! Volumes, dating back to before Konoha was founded! Please, Sasuke, don't let them burn them!"

Sasuke's breath caught in his chest. He couldn't do anything! Besides, it looked like there was a more serious problem. One of the white-masked shinobi leaped from an upstairs window with a thick, red leger in his hands. He displayed it to his superior, flipping through the pages and quietly indicating neat lines and calculations.

Sakura let out a small, desperate whine. "That's our finance book. No, no!" She covered her own mouth with her right hand, her left gripping Sasuke's arm as he pulled her back against him and further into the shadow of the neighbor's house. The children stood rigidly, eyes wide. Sasuke knew that Sakura knew what would happen. Civilians were not sent to the training camps, civilians were useless.

The Root-taicho sauntered over to Sakura's parents. "Haruno Kizashi, you have been found guilty of treason. Your family, finances, and belongings will become property of the state."

"Please," the pink-haired man begged, "our daughter is a loyal Ninja Academy student; she has nothing to do with this."

"Even so, she is the daughter of a treasonous man, she cannot be trusted."

So fast that Sakura and Sasuke could barely track it, a kunai had sliced Kizashi's throat and the man collapsed with a gurgle. Mebuki screamed, and Sasuke felt hot blood running down his face, and his right arm from where he had placed his hand on top of his friend's. Sakura had bitten her own hand, but refrained from crying out. His eyes burned, and he was able to see as Mebuki's sorrowful form shifted to one of desperate anger.

"You bastards are tearing Konoha apart!" Sasuke saw as Sakura's mother readied to throw herself in the now large fire, to burn with the books, and he abruptly tugged Sakura around so her face was pressed against his chest. He anxiously formed a one-handed seal, throwing his chakra into the jutsu, _please let this work_ , and successfully shunshined Sakura and himself away.

They toppled to the floor of his brother's office. Sakura was shaking uncontrollably and Sasuke immediately felt the chakra drain from the technique exhausting his reserves and was unable to support them. He heard the scrape of the chair as Itachi stood at the sight of them, rushing to help the two academy students. Sasuke met Itachi's gaze, watching as if in slow motion as Itachi's sharingan appeared in response to his own awakened dojutsu. He reached a shaky hand to wipe at the blood still pouring down his face, but spots flashed through his vision and Sasuke's hand fell back to the ground as his world went dark.

* * *

Naruto jettisoned out of his cot and stood at attention as the bars to his cell clanged open. The Hokage was here, in the middle of the night, and he was angry. Naruto quailed, memories of the previous times this had happened flashed through his mind, but he shoved those thoughts away and resisted the urge to glance at Shisui disguising himself in the shadows under the cot.

Stupid, to think they could fool the Hokage for long. Two Root guards dragged Shisui out by his ankles, slapping chains around each and a chakra-suppressing collar around his neck. The Hokage started toward him, and Naruto began to etch out a bow but was abruptly backhanded by the old man, causing him to lose balance and stumble to the ground.

"Did you think," the paper-thin voice hissed, "that I would not find out?"

Danzo's killing intent attacked Naruto, causing his breath to stutter. "Jinchuurikis do not have rights. Monsters do not have friends. At the end of the day, a murderer is alone with no accomplices. Your plan to hide Uchiha Shisui from the Root guards was a naïve and foolish one."

He turned to Shisui. "And you, grandson of my old teammate. I had high hopes for you once you completed your training. But, just like your grandfather, you have an irresponsible will to wile yourself into dangerous situations. Tell me, Shisui-kun, do you enjoy suffering?"

Shisui's entire frame was wrought with tension, but he forced himself to look down in deference to the Hokage. He did not want to make things worse for Naruto or himself. He startled however, when the blond boy somehow managed to lever himself up and stand between Danzo and Shisui.

"P-please, Hokage-sama. He…he's been teaching me. Orochimaru-sensei is always so busy, you know? And he never explains things. That's why I hid him here."

Naruto was nothing if not brave. The old man crouched down, staring at the boy with a chilly gaze. He lifted his hand, not quite touching Naruto's face, the tips of his wrinkled fingers seeming to glow red from within.

"Do you remember, digging a grave for your dark-haired friend? The one who liked to draw such inky, ribbon-like pictures?"

A strangled sound escaped Naruto's throat. He trembled but stood firm. "I have no friends, Hokage-sama. I only wanted to become stronger."

The Hokage sneered, and Naruto gulped. Still-burning fingers grazed his scalp as he jerked Naruto around to face Shisui and the scent of singed hair and skin filled the cell.

Danzo tilted Naruto's head back so he was forced to look Shisui in the eyes. "He still doesn't understand. Monsters are alone. Of all the things you will teach him, Shisui-kun, this lesson is of paramount importance."

He shoved Naruto toward one of the Root shinobi, and nodded at the other to grasp Shishui's collar. "Put the jinchuuriki in the cold cells. Shisui-kun is to receive due punishment for skipping his work and then he will return to the labor force. Once I have deemed the jinchuuriki ready, he will be taught by his new sensei."

Naruto howled. "No! Please, I don't want to go there. Please, Hokage-sama." He thrashed and bit the Root guard; he did _not_ want to go to the cold cells. But Danzo did not turn to face him, and the last thing Naruto heard were his condescending words to Shisui.

"What an honor it is to take part in the training of Konoha's greatest weapon."


	7. Chapter 6

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! This fic is so dark, idk whats wrong with me...just kind of setting some stuff up and giving background information in this chapter before the next. Please let me know what you think!**

* * *

Naruto poked his head out from under the thin blanket. It was almost time for him to head to breakfast before attending his bi-weekly sealing lessons with Orochimaru-sensei. Shisui was, as usual, snoring quietly beside him. He would work with the labor force until Naruto was finished with Orochimaru and then would continue Naruto's instruction in more general ninja arts.

The blond silently slipped off the cot, shivering in the moist but cool air and trotted out of his cell. There were few people milling the underground halls and he didn't have to wait in line for his food. Naruto had grown leaner and taller, and though still short for his age, he had a lanky appearance and was quite clumsy when he wasn't concentrating on being stealthy.

He stood outside Orochimaru's laboratory door as he finished his mush before setting the bowl and spoon on the floor by the doorframe. No food or drink allowed in the lab, one of the first rules he learned. Naruto stood tall and tried for a smile as he entered, greeting, "Orochimaru-sensei!"

The dark haired sannin merely glared and shoved a stack of papers at him. Naruto pulled a stool to his small desk and began studying the notes of calculations and theories and trying to ignore the various and sometimes gruesome experiments being done elsewhere in the lab. Sealing was mathematical, it was one of the only subjects he could sit and read about before working silently for hours on problems and developing theories.

When he was finished about a half hour before lunch, Orochimaru looked over his work, giving insults and corrections in tandem.

"Finish these for your homework, and apply the corrections to your theories and redevelop them." Orochimaru-sensei shoved the papers in a brown bag before grabbing a small bottle filled with a dark liquid. "Tell Shisui to drink all of this, no complaints."

Naruto nodded. "Thank you. He's…he's getting worse, Sensei."

Orochimaru nodded, for once showing concern in the slight twisting of his mouth. "We may have to commence with the plan sooner than we thought. Bring him here tonight."

Nervousness and sadness quelled in Naruto's stomach, but he nodded anyway.

Back at his cell, Naruto carried two bowls of soup. He placed a silencing seal on one of the bars of the cell door and gently slipped in to shake Shisui awake. The older boy was slow to open his eyes, bags dark and deep beneath them. He didn't need help sitting up or holding his first soup bowl, but he didn't get off the cot either.

"Two bowls of soup? Thank you, Naruto-kun!" He patted the blanket by his side. "Come sit and tell me how your lesson with Orochi-teme was."

Naruto complied, pushing the medicine bottle into Shisui's hand before almost curling into the fever induced warmth Shisui provided. "He said we begin tonight."

Shisui briefly stilled but continuing eating, mulling in his thoughts. "Alright. I'm ready."

Naruto stared at him and started trembling. "I'm not," he whispered, "Shisui-nii, I-I can't. I don't want to go, _please_."

"We've talked about this, Naruto. Nothing good will come from staying here."

"But this is my home! This cell is all I've known, I can't leave. I don't belong anywhere else!"

Shisui gripped Naruto's knee. "Have you seen yourself? You're way too short and sickly looking, and that scar—on your chest—Naruto, that's not-not good. You'll die here if you stay. The world out there needs you, remember?"

The blond boy started crying. "I don't care. I'm scared and I don't want to be a hero. All those ninja stories you tell, good ones and bad ones, I'm not a ninja and I never will be."

Shisui started and moved his arm to wrap around Naruto's shoulders. "Of course you will be, Naruto. You're almost genin age anyway, and more than talented enough for it. Besides, you won't be alone; you'll have comrades and teammates."

Naruto eventually ceased crying; making sure Shisui drank all the dark liquid in the little bottle given to him by Orochimaru, and curling up on the cot to fall asleep until it was time for them to escape. Four years of learning and planning and anticipating, and now that the moment was finally here, Naruto was scared and unwilling.

* * *

Kakashi was dreaming. He knew, he'd had this dream several times before. He was in a dark hide-out on the outskirts of Konoha, holding the cold hand of a young, red-headed lady. An orange-masked nin had just intruded, and killed Biwako-sama and took Minato-sensei's baby away before anyone could blink. Minato-sensei told him to _stay with Kushina_ and flashed away and Minato-sensei didn't know, he didn't know that he asked Kakashi to stay with a dead woman. To watch over the body of someone who was no longer loud and vibrant but small and pale, skin turning waxy as the moon filtered in through the window and illuminated the profile of her face.

He shuddered and gasped as he felt an enormous, malicious chakra erupt too far away and yet too nearby. He squeezed the stiff hand, almost wanting to curl his lip in disgust as he felt the unnaturalness of it, but instead managed to whisper _I'm sorry, Kushina-nee_.

Kakashi leapt out the window and to the roof of the little house, hardly needing to search much to spot the large, orange form of the Kyuubi attacking the village. He was entranced for what felt like eons, but eventually bounded forward toward the ensuing battle.

Minato-sensei was fighting the masked nin, Jiraiya-jii was fighting the Kyuubi, and Sarutobi-sama was working on the seal to bind the Kyuubi to the small bundle in Kakashi's arms. His name was Naruto, and though Kakashi knew there was trouble and danger just in front of him, he couldn't help glancing back at the baby. Naruto was tiny, and blond, and though he wasn't a day old he was wide awake. Kakashi thought he could sense the massive chakras flying about the area from the Kyuubi and the ninja, and he tried to use his own chakra to shield the baby with more calming vibes but wasn't sure it was working.

Then things happened too fast, and it was only through the repeated occurrence of this nightmare that Kakashi could piece the events together in his waking hours.

A large claw was heading his way, and though Kakashi was leaping, running with all his might, he knew it wouldn't be—no it was _Jiraiya_ there a black point running through his chest—and a toad, swiping at the claw, twisting its tongue around the tall sannin before _poof_ back to Mount Myobuku. And Sarutobi-sama, the old man was tackling him, grabbing at little Naruto and _flash_ the monstrous fox was screaming and growling and being pulled toward them and Naruto was screaming and Sarutobi-ji-sama was collapsing and he looked toward Minato-sensei who was darting toward them, panicked that the flailing of the slowly sealed fox would harm them and then he, _Sensei_ , was just…gone.

The fox was gone.

Jiraiya was gone.

The masked ninja was right in front of him and _why was Kakashi so useless_ Naruto was gone and his arms felt cold and he attacked the masked nin. Again. Again.

He landed a hit on the orange mask and it cracked and the enemy stilled and Kakashi, for the life of him he'd never figure out why but he also stilled. He didn't move to finish the kill.

He knew that face. The scars, the red eye, the dark hair: _Obito_. He choked on his next breath, already trembling from sorrow and rage and nauseous from confusion and fear. But still, Kakashi's own sharingan eye processed what he saw with painful clarity.

Obito looked panicked. He was breathing too fast as he stared at Kakashi, then his gaze darted to the cracked mask on the grass below, toward the body of the Sandaime, and back to Kakashi. "I-I didn't-I don't! Kakashi, I don't! No…no!"

His teammate, back from the dead, let out an anguished scream. "Get out! Get out of my head, you bastard!"

Three figures appeared in the space between them. A dead sensei, a dead baby, and a decrepit wretch with shaggy hair and rimmed eyes. The third figure stood tall, gazed disdainfully at Obito and Kakashi before leaping away.

Kakashi jolted out of his bed and into his bathroom, leaning over the toilet and letting loose all he had for dinner the previous evening. He leaned his head against the cool porcelain for some time before standing and rinsing his mouth.

He dragged himself out his window, through the rain, and to the balcony on the floor above. Obito was leaning against the wall, red-clouded cloak wrapped tightly around him. Kakashi sighed. "I always dream of that night right before something big happens."

Obito snorted. "I always dream of that night."

Kakashi decided now was a good moment to suggest _again_ , "We're the last of us, Obito, help me kill him."

He was promptly shoved backward, the railing of the balcony digging into his lower back and his head and upper torso sticking out into the rain.

"I've told you, Kakashi, don't call me that anymore. I am not Obito. I can never be Obito again. My mind, my self, my soul, I am something different than what you knew."

Kakashi hummed. "Different, but no less than usual, Obito."

Kakashi was tossed off the balcony and out into the rain and the mud and he didn't even try to stop his fall.


	8. Chapter 7

**Woohoo! Kinda fast update! Also, this chapter is the longest so far! I'm pretty proud lol. Thanks for reading, and thanks for leaving reviews/comments, they're all much appreciated and wonderful!**

* * *

12th Year of Danzo's Rule ( **forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but Naruto and Co are 12 now and finally moving up in the world)**

Naruto and Shisui silently crept down the hallway toward Orochimaru's laboratory. He had seals prepared and stashed in a storage seal on the inside of his right ankle, and weapons in one on his right hip. Nerves were curling in his stomach, and his shoulders ached with tension but he was unable to relax. Shisui was weak and shaky beside him, but no less quiet.

There was no light shining from under the laboratory door, but the two boys slipped in anyway. Orochimaru-sensei and a pale-haired, glasses-wearing teenager that Naruto had never seen before greeted them with a nod.

He reached down to unseal his manuscripts as Orochimaru worked on breaking Shisui's chakra collar and forcing more bitter medicine down his throat. The pale-haired boy was placing silencing seals around the room.

"Sit down, Shisui, this will be unpleasant. Kabuto, if you'll hold his shoulders."

Naruto watched, stunned, as Orochimaru bit Shisui's hand and his friend winced and started screaming. Surprised and angry, he turned on Orochimaru, "What-Sensei! You're putting a curse seal on him? That wasn't part of the plan!"

"Not part of your plan, Naruto, no. But Shisui won't survive much longer without it. He needs the power and the strength to drag you two out of here and his sickness calls for desperate measures."

"It doesn't look like he's getting much power or strength from it! It's horrible!"

Shisui's cries were softening, but he looked more ill. He was shaking and curling into himself and the seal was blurring and stretching across his had as if it was trying to adjust itself.

Orochimaru sighed. "It will help him in the long run, Naruto. Now, place the seals you prepared beforehand on yourselves. We don't have all night, guards usually check in around eleven-thirty o'clock."

The blond boy tried to quell his anger and worry and drew his seal manuscripts out from the storage seal. He applied them to himself first, on his forehead, arms, legs, and torso. Every limb and member had to have the preservation seal. He finally covered his mouth and nose with a web-like seal, laying the paper on his lips and peeling it away to leave the black ink behind. Shisui flinched when Naruto approached, but allowed him to attach the seals in the same manner. He helped his friend from his chair, wrapping Shisui's arm around his shoulders.

Naruto slipped a small square of paper into Shisui's palm and whispered, "One more seal, Shisui. But you'll have to direct your own chakra to this one; it's for the pain."

They followed Orochimaru and Kabuto to a door in the back of the lab. The room was small and hot, but Kabuto moved to turn the temperature down as much as it would go. The doors to the chute wouldn't unlock and open without the fires burning, Danzo was too smart to leave such a convenient exit. He didn't take into account however, that Uzumaki Naruto would become a burgeoning seal master.

Orochimaru gripped Naruto's shoulders. "You know what to do. Shisui will take care of things on the outside."

"Why don't you escape, Orochimaru-sensei? I can give you copies of the preservation seals."

The dark haired sannin almost glared at him. "Someone has to be here to start the incinerator. Besides, I am more useful here. I have a puny laboratory, unlimited numbers of test subjects, and much work to do for the underground. I am not a part of the Old Konoha Shisui has told you about, but I have my own people to whom I am loyal."

He nodded and began to turn away, but was stopped by Orochimaru's tightening grip.

"Naruto, if you meet Tsunade and Jiraiya, ask them: did they forget about their poor deranged teammate? Let them know, imprisonment has a way of reviving one's humanity."

He nodded again and debated hugging the creepy man. Orochimaru-sensei had been there as long as Danzo-sama had been, and while he wasn't nice, he wasn't unkind. He decided against it.

Naruto and Shisui slid onto the metal slab and applied the painkiller seal. The slab was slid into the metal tomb and the door clanged shut. They gripped each other and surged chakra into all the seals temporarily tattooed on their skin, and almost immediately, the incinerator ignited.

The burning was indescribable. Naruto tried to catalogue everything in the situation. _Only a few more minutes_ he told himself. The painkiller seal was just enough to prevent Naruto from going insane from the agony, but it was a near thing. His skin still cracked and burned. He could barely feel Shisui's grip on his arm but took comfort that the tighter Shisui held on the surer Naruto could be that he was alive. He couldn't open his eyes, stupid, why didn't he think to make seals for the eyes?! Hopefully, the seal on his head would prevent any damage. The seal on his mouth and nose prevented him from breathing in. Any of the scalding hot air and heat waves breathed in would result in internal burning of his lungs, so instead of suffocating from the fire it was decided it'd be better to suffocate from an airtight seal. He couldn't feel Shisui's hand anymore. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't feel anything.

When he did open his eyes again and take his first breath in what seemed like eons, Naruto found himself staring at a frantic Shisui. A dark sky was the backdrop behind his friend's head, littered with millions of stars. He stared, mesmerized. The sky was a beautiful and enormous monster, swallowing the world whole.

Shisui was shaking him. "Naruto, say something! Please, you have to be okay, _please_."

He gasped in another breath. "I'm fine, Shisui-nii."

Well, he felt a little ill, but he didn't need to worry the other boy. Shisui didn't look too good himself. There were open lesions and sores from the heat, and patches of his skin were painfully cracked and dry. Naruto imagined he didn't look much better.

"Good, well if you can stand, we need to get going. I already killed one Root guard. The curse seal activated while we were in the incinerator. It was difficult to deactivate."

Shisui looked odd. Naruto squinted at his friend and didn't move to get up. After another second, he reached his hand to his own head and felt his eyes grow wide. "…Shisui…we don't have any hair."

* * *

Sakura waited patiently for news of Sasuke's and their classmates' graduation exam. She had plenty of practice being patient; all of her life was a waiting game. Izumi had snuck her over to the clan head's house and they were quietly sitting in the kitchen. Due to the rationing of food, there was no mochi or cake, but Mikoto-san had managed to buy some expensive tea as a treat for Sasuke. Izumi and Sakura had worked to grow tomatoes in Izumi's garden and they were just ripe enough in time. Itachi was, unfortunately, on a mission and would miss his brother's becoming a genin, but had cleaned and polished their father's old tanto and wrapped it in stiff, brown paper.

The pink-haired girl smiled as Mikoto placed watery tea in front of her and Izumi. She was so grateful to the Uchiha. After her parents' death, they had hidden her in Izumi's dark house on the outskirts of the compound. For the first year, she was hardly allowed outside, staying in the tiny room behind the old grandfather clock, and it was miserable. She had no family and no possessions, and was alone the majority of the day until Sasuke would visit after class and share what they had learned. Izumi herself had often been busy with missions, and Mikoto and Itachi were busy with clan and Old Konoha duties.

As an eight year old girl, being imprisoned and alone so often was detrimental to her physical and mental health, and she knew she was forever in debt to the enemy shinobi that ruined Izumi's left leg on a mission three years ago and caused the older girl to take an early retirement.

Izumi taught her advanced chakra control exercises and iryou-ninjutsu. She brought her books from the library and helped her train in taijutsu and ninjutsu. She watched over her as Sakura cautiously played in the small garden and told her stories and histories that were banned since Danzo-sama became Hokage. It was thanks to Izumi that Sakura was on par with her now genin classmates.

She didn't wonder how long she would have to stay in hiding, thoughts of that were forbidden. She was still too young and unskilled to survive outside of Konoha, but if worse came to worst, Itachi had told her there was a safe place for her in one of the other shinobi villages. She didn't know what kind of connections Itachi had with foreign villages, but she was smart enough not to ask.

The sound of the door sliding open alerted the three girls to Sasuke's arrival. Mikoto went to greet him as he pulled his shoes off, and Izumi and Sakura stayed seated at the table. Sakura smiled when she saw the shiny hitai-ate on Sasuke's head. She was proud of her classmate.

The boy gave a small smile in return before seating himself across from the two girls and proceeding to explain how the examination went.

"It wasn't hard. I think they want everyone to graduate so that they can join the ranks, and as our class was weeded out consistently every year in the academy, anyone left was certainly able to pass. But…Kiba failed."

Mikoto jerked around from her place at the counter. "Inuzuka Kiba? Why wouldn't he have passed?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't know, Kaa-san. He is loud, but he's not unintelligent. It was strange. I know that his grades dropped even lower after his sister was taken to the Root training camps, but as a clan heir he should be passed almost immediately."

Izumi shook her head. "That may have been true when clan heads had a say in the government, but now I don't think that Tsume-san taking an issue to the Hokage about her son's failure will bring positive results."

Sakura shuddered. She knew, it didn't matter who your parents were, or how influential they might have once been, Danzo didn't care.

* * *

Shikamaru watched as Mizuki-sensei approached a confused and forlorn Kiba. Something wasn't right. Kiba had been in their class as long as anyone else, had worked with his pre-determined teammates Shino and Hinata through countless exercises, and was able to perform just as well. While the other boy was brash, he was caring and brave, and perhaps more importantly, he was the son of a clan head.

Mizuki-sensei must have had a reason to fail Kiba, and Shikamaru planned on finding out what it was. He waited until the white-haired chuunin finished talking to his classmate. Kiba had an even more confused look on his face. It was slightly suspicious too. The brown-haired boy forcefully sent Akamaru home, not relenting on his order of the puppy leaving. Shikamaru slowly rose from the Academy steps and shuffled toward the swing, startling his friend.

"Kiba, what did Mizuki-sensei want?"

The brown-haired boy fidgeted. Anxiousness, suspicion, and a great fear still lingered in his gaze.

"Kiba, we've been friends for six years; I know you're strong enough to pass the graduation test. Tell me what happened and let me help."

"I don't want to get anyone else involved. It's a load of trouble."

At Shikamaru's glare, Kiba looked down and mumbled, "I have my own special test. Mizuki wants me to steal the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage's office."

Shikamaru felt his face pale in shock. "That's a death sentence. Danzo-sama and his Root agents will catch you!"

The other boy gave a feral scowl. "I know that! But, Shika, I have no choice. With Hana-nee sent to the training camps, I am the remaining clan heir. I have to become a genin!"

"Do you think that if you get caught that you won't also be sent to the training camps? The Inuzuka will have lost both clan heirs. As loyal as they are, they'll try and revolt. Your clan will die, Kiba."

Kiba made a pained, frustrated noise. "Why do you have to be so logical? What kind of friend tells another of their imminent failure and their family's succeeding massacre?"

"Don't be so dramatic." Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "I have a plan. Do you know why Mizuki wanted the Scroll of Seals?"

"He didn't say. Just told me I needed to use my ninja skills to steal it and then to meet him after the curfew later. But…he didn't seem nervous suggesting a crime, just smug."

Shikamaru thought that over. Why wouldn't Mizuki be nervous while discussing a treasonous plan to steal from the Hokage? "Hm. Come on, we've got to make a couple of stops before heading to the Hokage tower."

The two boys waited somewhat impatiently in Akimichi Choza's office. The muscled man was thinking over Kiba's explanation of the situation and Shikamaru's half-formed plan. His arms were crossed and he was glowering at the stack of papers on his desk. Chouji was sitting next to them, glancing wide-eyed between his friends and his father.

Choza sighed. "You are as smart as your father, Shikamaru. But Danzo-sama's cunning knows no bounds. Danzo kills or arrests everyone he fears, and I have been lucky so far to have been underestimated by him. I can be a witness, but I don't know if I will be enough. Anything more and I put the Akimichi in danger too."

Shikamaru dipped his head. "Maybe you can still be underestimated? He won't do anything to hurt me; he needs me as insurance for my father's obedience. I can confront him and you can act as simply the concerned uncle you are."

Choza smiled sadly. "Alright. Let's ask Mikoto-san to come too. Danzo seems to have forgotten she was once an ANBU captain and is not only a broken, weak-willed mother. But, she has influence over a still powerful clan and hopefully Danzo will behave with us accompanying you."

The large man stood, and Shikamaru wondered at how Danzo could underestimate such a fearsome figure. He asked Chouji to stay in the Akimichi compound for a while before inviting the rest of their classmates to barbeque for dinner and informing them of the situation behind Kiba's graduation exam failure.

Shikamaru and Kiba then followed Choza to the Uchiha compound. It was Sasuke who answered the door, and he didn't look surprised to see the Akimichi clan head and Shikamaru and Kiba on his front step. He just gave Shikamaru a knowing and slightly exasperated look before inviting them inside.

Shikamaru recognized Mikoto-san and Uchiha Izumi, and he was happy to see Sakura seated next to the older girl. This time, he and Kiba sat with their classmates while Choza explained Shikamaru's plan to Mikoto. They didn't speak much, Sasuke and Sakura were already quiet preteens, and Kiba was too nervous and dejected to be his usual loud self.

Mikoto and Choza returned to the kitchen. The dark-haired lady placed her hand on her son's shoulder. "Sasuke, you will run a message to Tsume-san and then return to stay with Sakura and Izumi. I must go immediately with Choza-san and Shikamaru and Kiba. Sasuke, I-I'm sorry. Congratulations on your graduation."

Sasuke waived her apology away. "It's okay; we'll celebrate when Itachi returns from his mission."

Shikamaru watched as she briefly frowned. "Well, at least you can open his gift. I have a bad feeling you may need it sooner than when he returns."

Mikoto handed a long, brown paper wrapped package to Sasuke. The other boy gently tore the paper off to reveal a finely engraved and well cared for tanto.

"This was Tou-san's." Sasuke visibly gulped, and his eyes were wet. "I…I guess he really isn't coming back for it. I'll take care of it, I promise."

"Let it take care of you, Sasuke." Mikoto moved to hug her son, and Choza, Kiba and Shikamaru moved into the front room. Choza took Shikamaru aside.

"You mentioned earlier, Shikamaru, that Danzo-sama wouldn't hurt you." A large hand was lightly placed on his shoulder, and Shikamaru made sure to keep eye contact with his father's friend. "Don't, for one second, think that he won't hurt you. Don't doubt that he will. Are you sure you want to go ahead with this?"

He looked at Kiba standing not five feet away in the small room, but was staring at his shoes in an effort to give them privacy. He pictured Sakura in the kitchen, pale and small, but her eyes so full of relentless hope. He thought of Sasuke, the moment he realized whose tanto was being gifted to him. He remembered one of his father's lessons: _A good leader is only as loved as his people are loved_. Troublesome.

"I am sure Choza-ji. Thank you."

Kiba came to his side then too. "Whatever you need Shika, the Inuzka will give it to you with the best of their ability… _I_ will give it to you."


	9. Chapter 8

**It's been a while since I updated! School is super crazy right now and unfortunately, it will likely be for the rest of the semester, but I will keep updating! Thank you to all the reviews! The tips and advice are wonderful too, I will make a bio soon where I can share some announcements and stuff, but as its 12:37 am right now, that probably won't be done immediately lol.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter! The next one should be moving things along again.**

 **Thanks for reading and reviewing! ;)**

12th Year of Danzo's Rule

* * *

Kiba watched as Shikamaru stared down the chuunin outside the doors to the conference room in the Hokage Tower. Choza and Mikoto were behind them, also staring with grim and determined faces. His palms were sweaty and his hands were shaking and he wanted nothing more than to curl his fingers in Akamaru's fur, but he had sent his partner home. Akamaru was still young, and he knew this was a delicate situation.

In the conference room, the Hokage, his advisors, the potential jounin sensei, the crucial members of the civilian council, and Iruka-sensei were discussing team placements for his peers. With Kiba out of the way, Sasuke could be placed on a three-man team with Hinata-chan and Shino-kun. While Sasuke was his friend, Kiba had gone through every class and exercise with Hinata and Shino in preparation for their team, and he wanted to be a part of _his_ team. All of his hard work for was for nothing if he didn't become a genin. Furthermore, his clan needed him; they needed the hope of the next generation of ninja and to see that he upheld their ideals even in harsh times. _Courage and pride and pack._

Kiba felt ill. When the Root shinobi had appeared on one of the Inuzuka private training grounds and arrested Hana-nee, his older sister had told him those very words. She had allowed herself to be pushed to the ground and didn't struggle when her hands were harshly bound. They accused her of proving to be treasonous, and stated her punishment would be to complete indefinite retraining at the camps.

Kiba and Hana had been alone that evening. He remembered how warm it was outside, the grass was soft on his bare feet, and a breeze kept him cool as he trained with his sister. No member of their clan, their family, or pack had been around to watch as Hana-nee silently cried. No one had seen the fearful quivering of her mouth or the sympathy in her eyes as she told Kiba not to worry, not to fight back, as one of the white-masked ninja twisted Kiba's arm behind his back painfully. Hana's nin-dogs, the Haimaru brothers, had growled and bared their teeth and reluctantly obeyed Hana's command to not interfere, but to watch over Kiba and the clan. They had held a pitifully crying Akamaru by the scruff of his neck. Akamaru had only been a fuzzy newborn then and had not understood what was happening.

The Root shinobi had tossed Kiba to the ground when his squad members started escorting Hana-nee away. He immediately scrambled up to see his sister twisting around and begging to say goodbye. At the wave of the squad leader's hand, they allowed her to stand and face Kiba. Her brown eyes were wide and dark and imploring, and though they were still shining, no more tears were falling. _Courage and pride and pack, Otouto. I love you._

When Shikamaru, Choza, Mikoto, and Kiba were finally permitted in the conference room, they found all eyes staring at them. He felt the Hokage's gaze linger coldly on him before the old man addressed Shikamaru and asked for the reason of their intrusion. When Kiba noticed Shikamaru's steady shoulders, he griped to himself. _You are an Inuzuka, stop moping like a kicked puppy and regain your confidence._ He straightened himself and leveled his chin. At Shikamaru's glance, Kiba stepped forward with a respectful bow.

"Hokage-sama, after I failed to pass the Academy graduation exam, Mizuki-sensei approached me with an alternative exam. He asked that I steal the Scroll of Seals and meet him after curfew in the Northwest quarter of the training grounds."

The Hokage leaned his head against the back of his chair and briefly closed his eyes. "Hm. One would have thought you'd have been foolish enough to attempt the crime, Kiba-kun…It is good you have friends to prevent you from making such grave mistakes." He opened his eyes and gave a subtle glare at Kiba and Shikamaru. "You would have certainly been caught. Such an instance would have been detrimental to your clan."

Kiba refrained from letting loose a growl at the insult and condescension dripping from the old man's tone. "Hokage-sama, I should add that Mizuki-sensei wasn't anxious or cautious when he asked me to steal the Scroll. He seemed…too confident and cocky, not at all like someone who knew they were asking another to commit treason. _He_ had no fear of getting caught."

Mikoto-san gracefully intervened before Kiba could spill more of his suspicions and spoke on Kiba's behalf, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hai, Hokage-sama, and Kiba should have passed the test anyway. His grades are decent, and his field skills are promising. I'm sure Iruka-sensei can agree."

Iruka nodded calmly. "Mizuki did grade Kiba-kun's exam rather harshly."

Danzo turned his cold gaze on the Academy sensei before nodding and heaving a frustrated sigh. A Root shinobi appeared to his left. "Well, if his grades are decent and his skills promising why don't we just pass the boy now? I will have Root apprehend Mizuki-sensei."

What a simple solution. Danzo was taking this wrench in his plans too easily. Kiba _knew_ that wasn't all there was to it. His clan was the largest of all the Konoha shinobi clans. His clan was the most loyal to family members and friends before it was loyal to the village. His clan was quick to anger, and an angry Inuzuka was a reckless Inuzuka. Kiba's imprisonment or death was just what the Hokage wanted and Kiba hated the man with his whole being.

A bearded jounin at the far end of the table took a long drag from his cigarette and released the smoke in a loud exhale. "Forgive me, Hokage-ji-sama, but I'd like to know what on earth Mizuki was thinking? Surely he had to know his plan would fail. A genin can't just waltz in and steal the Scroll. Also, what motivation would he have had? It's a little suspicious."

The room temperature seemed to drop as the Hokage turned to the jounin. "Put out that cigarette, Asuma. Now is not the time for gossip, and you know better than to speak so casually in a conference."

Something loathing flashed through the brown-haired jounin's eyes, but Danzo ignored it and stared at the younger man until he gave a good natured shrug. Kiba was shaking now. The civilian council didn't understand, and the advisors didn't care. Only the jounin seemed interested in further investigation, but Danzo had effectively put an end to the _gossip_. He sensed an angry Shikamaru next to him gearing up to say something undoubtedly shrewd and dangerous, and Kiba almost stopped his friend, but his fear and anger prevented him from quieting the other boy.

"It would have been a great tragedy to the village had Mizuki's plan succeeded and Kiba was arrested or killed, Hokage-sama. The Inuzuka would not have stood for the loss of their clan heir. After the imprisonment of Inuzuka Hana and the confining of the Inuzuka nin-dogs to the compound when not on missions and training, the clan is already on edge. It would have been the perfect excuse to label their pain, anger, indignation, and discontent with the village as treasonous, and I'm assuming such treason would have been dealt with accordingly."

One of the civilian councilwomen gasped, her hand flying to her chest as she stared first at Shikamaru and then at the Hokage. The others mumbled or nervously ruffled their papers. The advisor, Homura-sama, stood abruptly. "Don't make such accusations, boy. The Hokage does his work for the betterment of Konoha."

The Hokage waved his advisor down and leveled a narrow gaze on Shikamaru. "No worries, councilmen, we would have found an appropriate solution had any such thing occurred, and with as minimal violence as possible…That would have been a terrible outcome, Shikamaru-kun. It is fortunate you were able to assist your friend."

Choza, speaking for the first time since entering the conference room stood solidly behind Shikamaru and Kiba. "Thank you, Hokage-sama, for hearing us. We apologize for any misconceptions and faulty accusations. We are happy the situation is resolved and that Mizuki is being taken care of. However, as it is nearing curfew, I assume you will want to finish your meeting soon?"

Danzo relented and dismissed them with a chilly nod. Kiba followed Choza and Shikamaru out the door, with Mikoto behind him. He could hear Choza chastising Shikamaru and himself for failing to utilize a more tactful manner, and letting their brash anger get the best of them. But Kiba couldn't pay attention, flashes of the clan's nin-dogs and other pets and family members, both civilian and shinobi alike, danced in his mind. A dark compound, once filled with cheerful noise and happy children and animals was empty and dusty. Kiba desperately wanted to get home and curl up on the couch with his kaa-san and her dog Kuromaru and Akamaru.

* * *

Naruto loved the house where Shisui had taken him. It was hidden deep in the woods, with tall trees that blocked the too-big and too-bright sky, and it had plenty of rooms and closets and cupboards filled with artifacts of things he had never seen. The ceilings were tall and the wood lining the doors and windows and covering the floors was dark and dusty and the whole house was depressing, but still somehow welcoming.

When Shisui and he had stayed the first couple of nights, they slept in the only room that was unlocked and contained furniture that wasn't covered in pale and dusty sheets. They read some of the scrolls on the shelves and ate the ration bars that filled the kitchen pantry.

Naruto hated the ration bars. After a life of soup that was easy to eat and easy to digest, the hard and crumbly ration bars sat heavy and dense in his stomach. Both he and Shisui had spent that first day lying in bed recovering from their escape and trying to ignore the cramps and sharp pains in their abdomen. But by day three, Shisui was feeling better and explained he had to leave to contact a friend. Naruto was still feeling cramps, but as long as he only ate a little bit at a time and drank plenty of water with each small bite, he wasn't spending hours on the toilet.

After Shisui left, Naruto found himself alone. His cell had never been this quiet, other prisoners and guards always making noise, and after constantly living with Shisui for five years, the solitude and silence was unnerving. Naruto found himself pulling the comforter off the bed and dragging it onto the floor beneath when he slept at night. He would hum to himself while he ate and he read each scroll in the room out loud. Shisui wasn't supposed to be gone this long, and the blond found himself biting his nails in worry and fear. Did Danzo know they had escaped? Were there Root nin searching for him at this moment? What if they could trace their chakra signature to this hidden house?

Shisui didn't leave him with any information or a plan in case he didn't return. His friend had been exhausted and was high strung, concerned about what to do next, but only seeming sure that he had to contact a friend. Shisui told Naruto it was imperative that the younger boy not leave the house.

This was day five in the safe house and he was restless and ready to explore. He had just placed a seal above the door handle to a room down the hall from the one where he had been staying. The door had a yellowed paper sign reading KEEP OUT pasted to the front. Pushing a little chakra into his seal, a click was heard and the door swung open. A flash of metal flying toward him from the corner of his eye sent him into a panic and he leaped out of the way, cursing.

There was no need for the alarm however; the kunai flew straight over his head and into the wall of the hallway behind him. _What the heck?_ It was obviously meant for someone much taller than he was, but Kami, what a welcoming entrance. Naruto peered into the bedroom. Like the living room and entryway downstairs, the furniture was covered with sheets. Sunlight filtered in through a dusty window and slanted onto the dusty floor. The blond tugged the sheet off the bed, a thrill of excitement when he realized it was smaller, narrower than that of the other room, but still bigger than his old cot. There was a shuriken patterned comforter lying over the bed that while kept clean from the sheet, smelled musty.

He tugged the sheet off the bookcase next, discovering rows of ninja scrolls, many of them appearing to be school texts and beginner jutsus. Whoever had lived here must have been around his age. In the closet, he found a blue backpack and clothes that were too small for him to wear. There was a stuffed dog and a box of practice kunai as well as a wooden box on the bottom shelf that Naruto opened with another of his unlocking seals. Inside, he found pieces of a broken sword, still shiny and sharp, but shattered nonetheless.

Naruto continued searching the sparsely decorated room for any more personal effects that would tell him more about the other boy that lived here. There were three framed photos, one of a genin team showing two unhappy boys, a sweet faced girl, and a blond sensei. The other showed a white-haired man with a pouting toddler on his shoulders, and the last picture was of eight strange looking dogs all wearing matching bandannas with a henohenomoheji print.


	10. Chapter 9

**Woohoo new chapter! Thank you all for the reviews! :) They make me so happy lol.**

 **So, still no update schedule and I don't know how long the story will be, and I'm sorry for that. I do have an end goal in mind, but I kinda only plan out the chapters for a couple of days when I have time, and then tend to write them super late at night...but once school is over I should have more time to be consistent.**

 **Have fun reading!**

* * *

12th Year of Danzo's Rule

The moist wind rushed through Itachi's hair as he ran toward the village. His mission was completed earlier than expected, and he was anxious to return home. Surprisingly, he was not as sore or exhausted after this mission as he usually was. There hadn't been any extenuating circumstances, just an assassination of a merchant and retrieval of three scrolls detailing several ancient kata once used by the Uzumaki of Uzushiogakure. Itachi might have scanned the scrolls with his sharingan before placing them in the storage seal on the bandanna on his left forearm. Maybe he would make some time to train with Sasuke and covertly work through the kata with his otouto.

At last, the western gates to Konoha were within sight. Two chuunin were posted at check in as usual, but there was also a Root nin perched on one of the tall gate posts. Itachi narrowed his eyes, something must have happened.

"Uchiha Itachi, returning from Mission 12B-8904." He unsealed his identification papers and passed them to the guard, but the Root nin leaped down and snatched them first.

After studying them briefly, the white-masked nin spoke in a rough, female voice. "Cleared. You are expected to drop off the package at the mission office and then return to the Uchiha Compound. Tomorrow at three o'clock, you will report to the mission office again to hand in your report. Do not come earlier or later than three o'clock; the village is in lockdown."

Itachi nodded and was on his way. Lockdown. That meant all shinobi clans were confined to their compounds or sectors when not working. Neither civilians nor shinobi were allowed to loiter and chat with anyone on the streets, and the markets would only be open for two hours, with each district of Kohoha assigned a different forty-five minute window to buy their groceries. Itachi almost sighed, this was tedious and worrying.

Later, when Itachi stepped through the door to his house, he was greeted by silence. It was dark in the rooms, and he would have been concerned if he hadn't seen the flickering of the lamplight through the open shoji doors that led to the patio behind the kitchen. Quietly he padded toward his mother and brother and watched them as they murmured to each other in the dark. Kaa-san glanced at him from the corner of her eye and gave a small, welcoming and relieved smile. Sasuke, quietly but intently describing his studies from earlier that day didn't notice. He watched as the fire in the lamps cast both a warm glow and fuzzy shadows across their faces.

Itachi remembered evenings such as this one from when he was younger. Tou-san would grill fish, and Kaa-san would cook sliced carrots in sake and sugar, and Itachi and Sasuke would roll around in the grass and try to catch fireflies. Sometimes their aunts and uncles and cousins like Shisui and Izumi would come as well with their own food and cheerfulness. Itachi let his sigh last long and low. It had been a long time since they'd had evenings like that, and it was presently too dangerous and suspicious-looking to host one now.

Sasuke turned slightly at the sigh and stared at Itachi before standing and giving him a hug. He had one of the biggest grins Itachi had seen on him in a while.

"I graduated, Nii-san. I don't have a team yet, but I've been doing some independent study and they've discussed adding me as a fourth member to a genin team a year ahead."

Itachi poked Sasuke in the forehead. "I'm proud, Sasuke."

For once his brother didn't scrunch his face at the forehead-poke. Instead he sobered a little, and somber gratitude entered his eyes. "Thank you for Tou-san's tanto. I've already begun training with it."

Unable to resist, Itachi poked his forehead once more before moving to sit on the plush rug on the patio.

When Sasuke had retired to bed, Itachi and Mikoto stayed in the kitchen. His kaa-san placed a tray of homemade dango in front of him. He gave a brief smile. His mother's dango used to be his treat for every mission he returned from, but with the rationing of food like sugar and flour, it was rare now.

"A contact told me two prisoners escaped from one of the camps. No idea who the prisoners are, but they are both male."

Itachi hummed as he ate his dango. This wasn't the first time prisoners had escaped, but it was only the second that the village was placed in lockdown because of it. The last time had only lasted four days before the escapee was found and executed. "They must be important for all of this. I was checked in by a Root nin at the gates, and there are certainly a lot more of them patrolling." Itachi set is plate down before turning to his mother. "I think I might look around the compound later. We can't have anyone hiding here, it'll look too suspicious."

Mikoto glared at him. "If you're caught, it'll look too suspicious."

He gave his mother a hug. "I'll be careful Kaa-san, I won't be caught."

Mikoto nodded and chided him for being too confident before heading down the hall to her bedroom. Itachi washed his plate in the sink, and grabbed his weapons pouch from where he had left it on the counter. He quietly slipped outside and steeled himself. If the escapees were in the Uchiha compound, they would have to be killed and burned. Turning them in or allowing their bodies to be found would only put the Uchiha in the unwanted spotlight.

Itachi made three shadow clones and sent them in different directions before heading north himself and slipped through the shadows of his clan's compound. The air was still humid and soft, but caused his hair to stick to his damp neck. Nothing was out of the ordinary that he sensed. His sharingan peered around him as he continued closer to the edge of the compound. Oh. He turned to his right. Well there was certainly someone at the Naka shrine. The door was slightly ajar and his eyes picked up a bloody smudge on the door frame.

Itachi readied a kunai, wishing he had his tanto. It was stupid not to bring it. Though the escapee was probably injured and weak, he was still dangerous. He slowly pushed the heavy, wooden door open and entered. No one was in the main room, so he headed down the hall on his left. In one of the rooms, he could hear labored breathing. Obviously the man was not in a state aware enough to quiet himself. Itachi darted through the door and onto the figure on the ground, pressing his kunai to the man's neck.

A familiar sharingan and a guttural _Itachi_ had him freezing. The man beneath him was thin and pale, with healing blisters and sores littering his face and neck and bald head, but the wry twist to his mouth was the same as it had been five years ago. Itachi skittered away.

" _Shisui?!"_

His friend gave a weak, chuckling sigh. "H-hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I escaped."

Shisui was still lying on the ground where Itachi had knocked him over. He moved to grasp the older man under the arms and shift him into a sitting position, but Shisui was unable to sit up by himself and ended up leaning against Itachi.

"How long have you been here? I just returned from a mission today and found out about the village lockdown."

"Six days. You-uh…you got any food with you?"

Feeling a pang in his chest at the desperately miserable question, Itachi shook his head no. "I'll get you something soon though. We'll take you somewhere safe and have your injuries treated."

Shisui grunted. "Izumi's?"

Itachi wanted to take his friend to his house, but knew that was a bad idea. The clan head's house would be the first place Root went if they suspected the Uchiha. He breathed out a sigh. " _Why_ do you always get yourself into so much trouble? Yes, Izumi and Sakura will take care of you for the time being."

Itachi hefted Shisui onto his back. It would be difficult to make it to the adjacent side of the compound without being seen, but he'd done more difficult things on missions. He would not get caught.

Shisui cleared his throat. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Itachi turned his head to peer at his cousin. Starving, injured, and weak and he still was one of the only people to make Itachi feel stupid.

"Hn. The other escapee. Who is he?"

The other man let a soft breath of air puff from his nose. "He was my cellmate. Just a little kid…but he still managed to get us out of there."

Itachi felt himself stiffen at the mention of a child kept as a prisoner in the camps. He hesitated in asking, "Is he dead?"

Shisui choked. "No! No, no…I hope not. He…well he had just spent an hour puking in the toilet last I saw him but he's not dead."

Itachi nodded before slipping out the window of the room and into the dark. They were silent as they made their way cautiously to Izumi's house on the outskirts of the compound. He could feel Shisui repeatedly relax as he lost consciousness and jerk as he came to.

Without knocking, Itachi entered Izumi's house. Before he took Shisui down to the basement, however, his friend stopped him. It was silent for a couple of minutes, their soft breaths pooling into the dark air, and Itachi could feel Shisui's hand clench.

"Itachi, there is something you need to know." Shisui leaned over weakly and whispered in Itachi's ear, "The jinchuuriki is alive."

The younger man stood shocked for a minute and processed the information and all the associated implications before stating, "He was your cellmate."

"Yes."

With a solemn nod, Itachi nudged the basement door open with is foot, finding Izumi and Sakura quietly reading. At the sight of them, the two girls stood, and Sakura instantly headed to the bathroom to grab the medical kit. Izumi stared as he laid Shisui on the bed at the far wall, her face contorting with grief.

"Is-I… _Shisui_?"

But their friend had already fallen unconscious, and she received no reply.

* * *

It was two days after Itachi returned from his mission that Sasuke was tasked with another message to deliver. As the village was still in lockdown, it would be tricky. He hadn't seen Itachi but one other time since his return, and his brother seemed weary and worried.

The Uchiha compound and surrounding area of the southeast district was allotted time to grocery shop between 10:15 and 11:00 in the morning on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He waited until he felt the slight presence of Ino also watching through his eyes before joining the rushing crowd. His peers from the Academy still met when they could, and relayed gossip to each other that they picked up from their clan's whispers, but Sasuke's message running was still the most valuable source of information, even if they didn't understand the context most of the time.

Sasuke could feel his irritation rise as he shouldered his way through the mass of people. He was just supposed to buy tomatoes, cheese, and then head to Ryoku Tea where the message would be delivered to him. He calmed himself before purchasing three tomatoes, and rolled goat cheese, and he finally turned to the end street where the tea stand was quietly doing business. He made sure not to look up at the Root shinobi posted on the roofs, or the chuunin they had stationed on each corner.

As he passed through the tied curtains into the shade, he spotted an old man with spectacles and one arm. "Reo-san, my mother would like a small can of genmaicha, please."

"Ah, Sasuke-kun. My last customer that bought a can of genmaicha was a strange one. He kept chewing on a senbon, even when talking. I was afraid he'd accidentally choke on the sharp needle."

Sasuke nodded. He was to deliver the message to a shinobi with a senbon. "That is strange. Maybe he wanted to look intimidating?"

The old man shrugged and handed him his change, bidding him a good day. Sasuke headed toward the exit gates where chuunin were checking receipts and grocery bags. He felt Ino's worry as they opened his can and looked at the tea leaves and rice kernels inside, but soon the can was closed again and he was on his way. Sasuke then left for the library, where he would meet his next contact. He had twenty minutes before he would be expected to return home.

Halfway there, Sasuke was sure he was being followed. Ino's anxiety rose, but at his internal flare of annoyance, she quieted. He subtly flashed his sharingan, and sure enough, there was a Root ninja tailing him from the roofs above. _Don't panic. Just continue about your business._

On the next block however, the white masked man leaped in front of Sasuke, blocking his way. _Kuso._ The man had broad shoulders and loomed over the genin. He stared at him before holding out a hand.

"Give me the can of tea."

Sasuke handed it over, palms sweating and fear curling in his stomach. What would he do if he was caught? Run, fight, there was nobody around that would help him. Ino was full on panicking in the back of his mind, but she was also sending waves of assurance and he thought he could sense her intention to notify Akimichi Choza. She soon faded from his senses, and Sasuke felt the cold space where she had been.

Sasuke kept his face blank as he said, "It's just tea for my kaa-san. I'm on my way to the library for the rest of my allotted time outside of the compound, and then I'll be on my way home."

The genin could feel the other man's eyes boring into him from behind the mask, as he opened the tin lid. He then dumped the whole can onto the ground.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw a strip of rice paper fall to the ground amid the leaves and rice kernels. He caught what the lettering said; _The jinchuuriki is alive_ , before it was snatched by a gloved hand. Not bothering to wait for the Root nin to read the message, Sasuke bolted to his left.

He darted between buildings and down alleys. The white-masked nin wasn't too far behind him, and as he was using the roofs he could travel much faster. He remembered Itachi's instruction if he was ever caught. _Run and isolate yourself. You don't want other Root ninja to see and come to his allly's assistance. You run somewhere you can fight, and you kill him, Sasuke. No hesitation, fight for your life and kill whoever is after you._

Itachi had then taught him the Uchiha Body Burning jutsu; he stressed the importance of leaving no evidence. If there were no witnesses, and the Root shinobi was reported as MIA, then hopefully Sasuke could continue his genin life in Konoha as peacefully as possible.

Almost running into a dead end, Sasuke instead turned right, dodging a kunai thrown his way. He saw a clearing up ahead leading to part of Konoha's expansive forest and headed that way, but a jerk on his shirt caused his breath to cut off and he fell to the ground. The Root nin was on top of him, his knee pressing into Sasuke's stomach, making it more difficult to breathe. He braced his arms as a fist was aimed toward his head and deflected the punch. The man wanted to take him into custody for questioning or to be sent to the training camps, he wasn't aiming to kill Sasuke. But Sasuke knew if he dragged the fight on too long, the man would get irritated and just kill him. Sasuke had to kill him first, while the Root nin was holding back.

Though his vision was growing blurry from lack of oxygen, he stopped defending his head for a second to grab a kunai from the Root nin's weapons pouch. The man's punch landed on his left eye, but he soon fell back as Sasuke's kunai stabbed his thigh. Not letting the man recover, Sasuke twisted up and aimed for his Achilles' tendon. He missed however as the shinobi kicked out, sending Sasuke flying.

Sasuke hesitated for a moment as he got to his feet. Should he run further to the forest? Would the Root shinobi chase him or go for backup? Should he try and kill the man now? Would he be able to? _You have to._ He reminded himself he had no choice but to kill the man. _Leave no evidence._

The decision was made for him as the man snarled and charged Sasuke. The boy turned and ran further into the forest. He felt a sharp pain and a spray of blood drizzled his cheek as a kunai grazed the top of his collar bone. He didn't take time to look back, but the man had almost overtaken him. He could hear the pained hitches in the shinobi's breath as he ran on his injured leg. Sasuke yanked himself quickly around a tree to his left, causing the man to stumble and catch up.

Just as he reached another clearing, one with an old and dilapidated house in the middle, the Root ninja toppled Sasuke. This time the genin was on his stomach, unable to turn and defend himself from the man. He bent his torso to the side to try and stab the shinobi in the leg again, but his wrist was caught and his arm was twisted behind his back painfully. The man grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the grass before leaning over and growling in his ear, "You won't make it out of this forest alive, Uchiha scum."

Sasuke jerked his shoulders and wriggled with all his might, but it was to no avail as the man's knee again pressed down on him and limited his ability to breathe again. He searched what he could see in front of him, beyond the grass in the foreground of his vision, for anything, anyone that would help him. _Kaa-san, Itachi…please, I_ —a loud and ferocious yell echoed in his ears and something rammed into the Root nin, shoving the man off of Sasuke's back.


	11. Chapter 10

**New chapter! It took a while...sorry. Busy with school again (when am I not lol), but I'm about to graduate :D** **But yeah still no profile or anything on my page but I'll get there someday**

 **So I do have ideas for other stories, like I freaking love the time travel ones or modern AU ones (and there's so many of each of them) but as this is my first and it is taking longer/turning out to be longer than I anticipated, we'll get there when we get there I guess! I feel like I'd get overwhelmed trying to write two in depth stories at once...I don't really consider my other story to be as involved as this one so it doesn't count, it's literally written to be all fluff lol. But...also new stories are exciting so... hmm.**

 **Thank you all for reading/reviewing! If I could put the little emoji with the blushing smile on here I would haha!**

* * *

12th Year of Danzo's Rule

Ino stood with Chouji and Shikamaru in the middle of an alley. After learning that Choza-ji was on a mission, the three friends decided it would be best to inform Mikoto-san or Itachi-san immediately of Sasuke being caught by a Root shinobi, but they were halted by their new sensei.

Asuma-sensei stared at them patiently, arms crossed and cigarette smoke curling around his face. "I really would like to know what has my three students rushing about Konoha in such a suspicious way during a village lockdown."

Ino shuffled her feet as Shikamaru sighed and Chouji looked at the ground.

"You know, teammates are supposed to trust each other."

Surprisingly, it was Chouji who bit out, "You're not our teammate."

Shikamaru stepped forward slightly as Asuma-sensei's gaze sharpened on their friend, but Asuma then relaxed and let his shoulders roll in. Ino catalogued his obvious effort to make himself appear less imposing.

"Well, I hope in the field you three will have my back just as I will have yours. But I guess you don't know me enough to consider us friends."

Without taking his eyes off of Asuma-sensei, Shikamaru reached back to Ino, nudging her closer to Chouji and bitterly issuing her orders. "Let _her_ know about the situation. We'll worry about the consequences later, but our friend needs assistance immediately, Ino."

Swallowing, to try and soothe her suddenly dry throat, Ino nodded. She glanced at Chouji, seeing that he was ready to catch her and guard her while she visited Sakura's mind. She quickly formed a hand seal and lashed her chakra out before their sensei could stop her. Ino briefly saw his eyes widen before everything went black for a moment.

When she felt Sakura's familiar consciousness wrap around her, she flooded her friend with feelings and instincts stressing the importance of finding Mikoto-san or Itachi-san and then nudged brief images of Sasuke's last known whereabouts with the Root shinobi into Sakura's mind. An uncomfortable wave of Sakura's chakra rushed over Ino's senses as she performed a henge, giving the pink-haired girl the appearance of an Uchiha.

Sakura's senses overwhelmed Ino, and she found herself immersed in the sights and sounds and feeling of running through the Uchiha compound to the clan head's house. She bit her hand to painfully ground herself, and remind her not to get too lost in Sakura's consciousness. As Sakura made her way, Ino flashed her the idea of using her as a conduit to show Mikoto or Itachi the message, it would be faster, and as Ino had never used her mind jutsu on either of the two Uchihas before, she was hesitant to do so. The first couple of times sharing senses and ideas with someone was always too painful and disorienting.

She felt the rough wood as Sakura impatiently rapped her knuckles on the door, and was just as startled when it was ripped open and Sakura was lead to the study. Itachi's hand on her arm was firm, but gentle.

"What's happened, Sakura-chan? You know it's too dangerous to leave Izumi's house, especially with the village on lockdown."

Sakura gave a slight nod of her head. "I know, Itachi-san. Yamanaka Ino has a message for you about Sasuke-kun." Ino felt Sakura's muscles stretch as she reached her left hand toward Itachi. With a worried look, Itachi sat in his chair and allowed Sakura to place her hand on the crown of his head.

Ino surged forward, sending feelings of fear and concern as she flashed the images she had seen from Sasuke as he was caught with the message hidden in the can of tea. She felt Itachi twitch and stiffen under Sakura's hand, and through them both, felt the Uchiha's overwhelming worry and love and great fear for Sasuke. Barely waiting until Ino was finished, Itachi ripped away, leaving her with white noise buzzing across her senses. Ino pulled herself together in time to hear his words as he grabbed his weapons pouch and tanto before leaping out of the window.

"Stay hidden here, Sakura-chan, until my mother returns from her mission this evening. Ino-chan, I thank you and your teammates for being such caring peers to my otouto. When you return, don't fear your sensei."

Ino stood with Sakura in the study for moment before nudging her friend her thanks. She felt the soft fabric of Sakura's shirt as the girl nervously rubbed her thumb along the edge. Sakura spoke out loud. "I really hope he's okay, Ino-chan. We…we were always supposed to be teammates and I know you and the other's will always be there for me, but he's my _teammate_."

Ino rushed through Sakura's consciousness with waves of love and sensations of large fluffy blankets and hot tea warming one's hands and instincts of _we're all teammates_. She felt her friend's emotional quivering calm somewhat, and sent the other girl another mental hug before ending her jutsu.

Though she had a massive headache, Ino tried to concentrate on her surroundings and gather her bearings before opening her eyes. It was mostly silent, only the sound of the wind rushing around the corners of buildings and through the tall trees making noise. She felt Chouji's large, warm hand on her forehead and brow, and the dry, gritty dirt of the alley beneath her calves and elbows as she was lying down.

When she finally felt steady enough to open her eyes and sit up, she found Shikamaru still standing in front of her and Chouji, his shoulders tense, and their sensei sitting against the wall of the opposite building, three cigarette butts crushed in a pile to his left. He winked at her as she stared. She craned her neck to look back at Chouji, who shrugged.

"Asuma-sensei said to wait until you came back before continuing our discussion."

Ino turned back to Asuma. "May we go train, Sensei? I'm sure there is something you can teach us about building trust between teammates."

Asuma laughed and rolled languidly to his feet, motioning them to follow him. Shikamaru gave her an irritated glare and scowl, but Chouji seemed pleased and simply helped her to her feet. They had to walk fast to keep up with Asuma's long stride, and despite Ino's best efforts, she was quickly lost as the man lead them through the village.

Soon, however, they were in an old and secluded section of shinobi residential lands. The trees were taller, the shadows darker, and the air teemed with soft loneliness. She gaped as Asuma-sensei lead them through ornate wooden gates with two weathered, carved wooden monkeys atop the gate posts. Beyond, were about seven grand houses, all dark and empty, but still well cared for. Ino startled as she felt Asuma's heavy hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see a wry smile on his face as he pointed to a small house growing out of one of the tallest trees in the grove.

"The Shodai Hokage called that tree house from that tree for my father when he was a child. He told him that as long as his heart was strong, his home was strong, and that the more heart he put into his work, the stronger his home would grow. Later, long after the Shodai had died and my father had been the Sandaime for quite a few years, I was leaving Konoha to join the Twelve Guardian Ninja that served the Land of Fire's daimyo. As an angry and rebellious teen with no respect for my father's position, I was impatient to leave for the capital. But the Sandaime stopped me and said, 'If you listen to nothing else I say, at least listen to this…' and I did.

"So, my wary students. If you listen to nothing else I say, at least listen to this: As long as your heart is strong, your home is strong."

Ino felt her eyes water at the words. _Don't fear your sensei,_ Itachi had said.

* * *

Sasuke lay with his face in the grass for a moment, trying to process that he wasn't dead. Someone had shoved the Root nin off of him, and he could hear the sounds of them fighting. Trembling, he rolled onto his back and sat up. His savior was just a kid, probably around his own age. He was scrawny and pale, with bare feet, and his shaved head with small blonde hairs poking up from the skin only added to his bedraggled appearance. Though he didn't look like much, he had a shaking and almost fearful fury in his movements against the Root shinobi. Sasuke stared wide-eyed as the boy managed to swipe and doge clumsily at the Root nin. He was fast, and his movements were sharp and accurate, but the hesitance before each motion gave away his inexperience.

Collecting himself, Sasuke scrambled painfully to his feet and dashed toward the two as the other boy gained a not insignificant cut along his right forearm. He leaped onto the Root nin's back and held on tightly as the man jostled and bucked. The scrawny boy kept up his own attacks from the front, stabbing his kunai at the man's legs and stomach and dodging his flailing arms. The blond boy was brutally kicked away, and Sasuke's stomach dropped has he felt the man tipping himself backwards, slamming and squashing Sasuke beneath him.

Blindly, he stabbed at the man's neck. Warm blood washed down his hand and arm, and he would've gagged had the adrenaline not still been pumping through him and urging him to stab again. There was suction on the kunai as he slid it out, but it slid back into the flesh easier this time. A large hand gripped his right ankle and twisted, pulling a cry from Sasuke's lips as hot pain shot up his shin. He was frozen in shock and agony, dropping his kunai and allowing the Root shinobi to roll up.

Fortunately for Sasuke, the other boy again rushed the man, managing to stab his kunai into the back of the shinobi's knee. The man went down, but not before retaliating with a vicious punch to the blonde's head. Sasuke gripped at the grass, struggling to roll and crawl toward the man. He caught the blonde's eye. _Keep him occupied_ , he tried to convey. With a yell, the scrawny boy jumped at the Root shinobi again, feinting low before aiming for the man's shoulder. Sasuke wiped his bloodied hand on his shorts before tightening his hold on his kunai and silently creeping forward again. He internally swore as the other boy was caught by the Root shinobi. The blond was flipped on the ground, arms shaking as he desperately tried to deflect the man's kunai away from his chest.

Sasuke hobbled quickly behind the man and thrust his kunai into the base of the back of his head. His kunai was met with strong resistance as he met bone, but Sasuke intended to puncture the man's skull. He grunted, feeling the small, sharp hand guard on the kunai bite into the soft skin of his thumb and pointer finger as his hand slipped forward with the effort. More warm blood dripped down his forearm and off of his elbow, splattering the ground.

The scrawny boy's arms collapsed, and Sasuke felt himself and the Root shinobi tipping forward. He lay on top of the shinobi for a minute, breathing heavily. The other boy had his legs caught under the man, but was just as greedily gasping for air. They stared at each other, adrenaline fading, before something caught Sasuke's eye, causing irritation to rack up his spine.

"What the hell is _this_?" He hissed, grabbing the boy's weapon. "A practice kunai?! You could've gotten us killed, you dobe!"

The blond made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat. "It was all I had, teme!"

Sasuke refrained from pulling at his hair, remembering the boy's wild movements and bare feet. He slid off the dead man and onto his bum, before pulling at the shinobi to try and release the blonde's legs. Once free, the other boy stumbled to Sasuke, pulling him up and helping him hobble to the old house ahead.

"Wait." Sasuke stopped him. He leaned back toward the body, allowing the blond to grasp his shoulder as he tediously performed a set of hand signs before placing his first two fingers to his lips. Hot chakra gathered at the tips, and he pressed them first to the white-masked forehead, dragged them down the man's covered face, neck, and stopped on the sternum, all the way releasing the searing chakra.

With a surprised grunt, the other boy caught Sasuke's elbow to steady him after the energy drain, and they both watched silently as the body glowed an angry red. The skin split and burned black at the edges as the organs dissolved to ash and collapsed. Once there was just black ash, the material turned grey, then white, and then seemed to turn to softer and finer and translucent particles before sinking into the earth with no trace of there ever being a man. Sasuke heard the boy suck in a breath and grip his arm tighter.

"Why didn't you just do that in the first place?"

"They have to be dead first."

Slowly, they made their way up the creaking, wooden front steps, and Sasuke barely had a second thought as they entered into the dark entry way.

Inside, the house was creepy. The light was dull, the furniture was covered in sweeping sheets, and what could be seen of the ornate architecture was covered in dirt and dust. Sasuke turned his head, observing the small footprints on the dusty stairs and pattering over the floor. The other boy sat him on a stool in the kitchen, and had gone into the bathroom down a hall to his right to retrieve towels, a pail of water, and a medical kit.

After watching the boy scrub harshly at the deep cut in his arm before clumsily wrapping it in bandages, Sasuke gave a glare before turning and allowing him to try and clean up Sasuke's scraped shoulder. "You live here?"

"Uh, temporarily, yeah. It's great isn't it?"

Sasuke just gave another cursory look around. There were around thirty ration bar wrappers shoved into the trashcan to the side of the counter. "Hn. What's your name?"

The boy, who had been digging in the medical kit looked up, his bright eyes squinted as he smiled, showing off pointed canines and crinkling the six scars on his cheeks. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

Sasuke almost wrinkled his nose at the loud pitch of Naruto's voice. "I'm Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke."

He narrowed his eyes as blue eyes turned to him, startled. But at Sasuke's suspicious and questioning glance, Naruto just shrugged and quickly looked at the floor. "Just recognize the name Uchiha, that's all."

Sasuke nodded. His clan was pretty large and infamous. They didn't speak much more when they finished dressing their injuries, though Naruto did point Sasuke in the direction of what must have formerly been a guest bedroom in the old house.

* * *

Kakashi thought he was dreaming again, at first. He was in a bed in a safe house not too far from Amegakure, and though it was dark, he was still able to make out the wavering face above him. The unmasked man's eye bored into Kakashi's, and if Kakashi listened, he could make out the mumbling stream flowing from a scarred mouth. Obito was always a talkative one.

"…I don't know how you became so annoying. The serious Bakashi was so much easier to deal with, irritating, but predictable. Now, you're just infuriating. I was on a mission with Deidara-baka and one of Kisame's disgusting fish summons slapped me in the face with a message that you'd put yourself in a coma."

Kakashi closed his eyes, fighting nausea. "Somehow I don't think putting Kisame and Deidara in the same team is a good idea."

Obito gave an ugly snort. Kakashi stared at his humorless face, lean and grave, and nothing of the young boy who was once his teammate shining through. He imagined the large and dark eyes peaking out from under orange goggles and tried to reconcile that innocence with this man's cynicism.

"Hmm. It was an elite Root squad. Fugaku was one of the brainwashed members." He watched as Obito's fist curled. "They thought I had information of the whereabouts of an escaped prisoner."

"And did you?"

"Don't be daft. I haven't heard from anyone in Konoha in ten years."

Obito grunted. "So how did they find and apprehend the great Copy Ninja Kakashi of the Sharingan? "

"Well…it was a long mission. I didn't expect the Takigakure terrain to be so rugged and harsh. Kisame and I had been traveling for four days without rest, anxious to return. He went west to collect some food from a small town we were passing, and I continued for Amegakure with the client's scroll. There were seven Root ninja that intercepted me."

Kakashi remembered seeing the white masks glowing in the fading light of dusk through the leaves of trees. He remembered choosing not to outpace them immediately, they were not attacking, just following. He recognized the chakra signature of the man to his left as that of Uchiha Fugaku. The man had had no compassion for Obito as a delinquent and failure of a genin, but after Obito's death, he had tried to have the sharingan gifted to Kakashi returned to the clan. Despite this, after the Kyuubi attack and deaths of the Sandaime and Yondaime, the serious man had stood by Kakashi and protected him from the machinations of Danzo to the best of his ability. When Kakashi fled the village, he didn't get a chance to thank the Uchiha patriarch, and still wondered what had changed the man's mind about him.

Now, though, it seemed he had fallen subject to Danzo's malicious regime. Wondering if Uchiha Fugaku had truly been indoctrinated, Kakashi had decided to engage the elite Root squad. They had fought, not brutally, but he was essentially interrogated by the squad leader. Fugaku had held back and stayed silent throughout the entire exchange.

Kakashi had no idea what the Root nin wanted. He didn't know of any recently escaped Konoha prisoners, or shinobi defects, and he hadn't heard from Jiraiya in three years. But the squad leader, distinguishable by his large size and his missing pinkie and ring fingers on his left hand, was obviously anxious and pressured to find the escapees. He motioned to Uchiha Fugaku, and Kakashi, curious and foolish, had looked straight into the Uchiha's Mangekyou sharingan.

He watched, over and over, the torture of a boy with blond hair and scarred cheeks. In an underground cell. Alone. Whether Fugaku sincerely meant to give Kakashi a message, or whether the vision was simply meant to put Kakashi through such wretched torment, he didn't know. But the inkling of the idea of the jinchuuriki being held by the Hokage gave Kakashi the seed of truth.

He wanted to tell Obito. He needed to tell Obito. But Obito was Akatsuki. _Kakashi_ was Akatsuki. And the Akatsuki hunted jinchuuriki.

Obito's voice sounded in his ears. "You're crying, Kakashi."

He sounded unhappy and irritated. Kakashi reached a slightly tremoring hand to his damp cheeks. "Ah. Just remembering the Tsukuyomi vision. Thank you, for ending it."

His teammate crossed his arms and abruptly stood. "We are not friends, Kakashi, just to be clear. I have not forgiven you."

Kakashi flinched. A lightning-bright image flashed in his mind's eye. At least Obito was just as stubborn and idiotic as always. "Hmm. You haven't forgiven yourself either."

Dark killing intent seeped through the air. Obito was still just as dramatic too, it seemed. "You're a true saint, forgiving us both."

Kakashi felt a snarl ripping up his throat as Obito began to swirl to someplace else. "There's a difference between forgive and forget, you imbecile."

Obito's last words before he was gone dripped with condescension. "Learn to use the Mangekyou, you imbecile. If you get caught by the Tsukuyomi again, I'm not helping you out of it."

Kakashi dug his nails into his palm and leaned against the small bed's headboard, trying to calm the stinging anger and fiery sense of loneliness that came as a reaction to Obito's callousness. _Those who abandon their friends, Obito, are worse than trash. Didn't you teach me that?_


	12. Chapter 11

**Woohoo! New update! Hope yall enjoy!**

 **Thanks fore reading :) and reviewing ;)**

* * *

12th Year of Danzo's Rule

Itachi flew through the forest, hopping from branch to branch as he tracked Sasuke's stumbling path. His brother had been running desperately and recklessly, barely keeping ahead of his pursuer. The sharingan caught sight of a few small drops of blood on the forest floor, and Itachi sucked in a breath, trying to calm his thundering heart. Sasuke was often quiet and brooding, but he was astute and a quick-learner; he could hold his own for a little while. Still, against a fully-trained Root nin, Itachi had to be realistic. He forced his legs to pump faster, allowing his eyes to quickly pick up on information.

After only a couple minutes more, Itachi could sense Sasuke's weakened chakra signature. He felt almost sick at the wave of relief that washed through him, but didn't slow his pace; there was still someone with Sasuke, someone with an evil tinted chakra signature that he vaguely thought he recognized. A clearing was ahead, with signs of a fight out front of an old house. Itachi, with killing intent creating an intimidating pressure around him, leaped softly on the roof and crossed to the back of the house before flipping himself around and swinging feet first through a kitchen window.

He would have thrown a kunai at the other person in the room had his sharingan not immediately processed that it was just another boy, who was in no way harming Sasuke but rather hiding behind his otouto. Itachi stared at the two for another moment before lowering his arm and letting the sharingan fade.

"Otouto, I…" Itachi took a deep breath, unable to continue. _You nearly scared me to death._

Luckily, his little brother seemed to understand. Sasuke limped away from the other boy to briefly wrap his skinny arms around Itachi's midsection, whispering a soft _Nii-san_.

"Is the Root shinobi dead?"

Sasuke nodded and cut his eyes toward the boy who had shoved himself into the corner of the kitchen. "We killed him. And I used the jutsu to burn the body."

Itachi nodded and poked Sasuke's forehead before turning to study his brother's companion. The whiskers and patchy blond hair just beginning to grow on the boy's head registered in his mind, and though the boy curled his body inwards and braced himself against the wall in an untrusting way, his bright blue eyes glared fiercely at Itachi.

So this was Shisui's cellmate. The jinchuuriki. Strange, but fortunate, that Sasuke had run into him. He softened his expression slightly and nodded toward the boy. "Thank you for helping my otouto, Naruto-kun."

Naruto shifted uneasily, looking very much like a trapped animal. "How… how do you know my name?"

"I'm Uchiha Itachi. My cousin, Shisui, told me all about you a couple of nights ago."

Blue eyes widened and Naruto leaned forward slightly. "Where is Shisui? How is he? He was supposed to meet me back here five days ago!"

"He is all right, Naruto-kun. It took me a couple of days to rendezvous with him, and he was ill for a while, but he is safe and in good hands now." Itachi caught the accusing stare Sasuke gave him for not sharing that Shisui was one of the escaped prisoners, or that he was found by Itachi and given refuge. "It was safer that you didn't know, Sasuke."

Naruto chewed on his lip with a long canine. "Shisui's been sick for some time. Orochimaru-sensei would give him medicine, but it didn't seem to help much."

Itachi kept his face blank at the mention of _Orochimaru-sensei_. He motioned to Sasuke to let him see his injuries, and check that they were well taken care of. "I think that solid meals, rest, and plenty of iryou-ninjutsu have helped Shisui greatly."

He ran gentle fingers over the bandages on Sasuke's shoulder, before nudging his brother onto a stool and kneeling to check the splinting of his ankle. Naruto had done a decent job, it would hold. A plan was beginning to form in the back of his mind as he pushed green colored medical chakra into his hand and ran it over Sasuke's form. He wasn't skilled enough to heal, but he could at least breathe energy into the cells and ensure there would be no infection.

"Sasuke, I think you should stay here while you heal."

His brother cocked his head. "Won't they notice that I am missing when I don't check in for curfew?"

Itachi shook his head, but couldn't meet his brother's dark eyes. "That is all right. I will erase your tracks from the village and through the forest, and the location of this safe house will remain unknown to Root. When you are able to walk…you won't be returning to Konoha."

Sasuke froze in surprise. He stared at Itachi with alarm and no small amount of pleading, and his fingers curled tightly into the fabric of his pants. "No, Itachi-nii, please."

Itachi just stood, and put his hands on either of Sasuke's shoulders, squeezing none too gently. He then turned to Naruto, who was still watching warily. "Will you allow me to see to your injuries too, Naruto?"

The blond boy's whiskered face twisted into a scowl and he shook his head no. Itachi conceded. "Sasuke will stay with you for a couple of days. I will talk to Shisui and return then, if you two could gather some supplies and rest, you'll be going on a long journey."

Two pairs of eyes glared at Itachi, but he didn't give them time to argue, he quickly performed a shunshin into the forest to begin the laborious task of erasing the signs of the battle and tracks leading to the old house.

* * *

Naruto let out a growl. "Is your brother always such an ass, teme?"

Sasuke glared at him but didn't seem to be in the mood to give a reply. Naruto muttered whatever and wandered to the bedroom in which he had been staying. Both Itachi and Sasuke were annoying asses, their know-it-all attitudes rubbed him the wrong way, and while he sensed neither of them were intentionally rude, he was also a little afraid of them. Cousins they may be, but they were nothing like Shisui-nii. Naruto found himself sniffling. He wanted nothing more than to be back in the Root prison, in his small, dark cell and in his small, uncomfortable cot listening to one of Shisui's stories. He crawled under the bed, where he had setup a couple of pillows and dragged the shurikan covered comforter down, and laid on his stomach before getting to work on his latest sealing project.

Naruto had been working for three hours before he heard the uneven thumping of Sasuke's footsteps. He would have fallen asleep, but nightmares of the Root prison had plagued him every night for the last week, and he was not ready to visit them again. Naruto watched from the floor as the bedroom door creaked open and Sasuke's feet stopped. The other boy walked around the bed briefly before slowly getting to his hands and knees and peering at Naruto under the bed.

"What the hell are you doing under there, weirdo?"

Naruto gave a shrug. "Working."

Sasuke eyed the mess of papers and almost empty ink jar. "Hn. Is there anything to eat other than ration bars?"

Naruto shrugged again. "Not really, I think this is just a house used temporarily in emergencies, and whoever lived here before obviously isn't coming back."

"Hn. They left all this old stuff here. It's creepy."

Eyeing the other boy, Naruto gave a mischievous grin. "Well maybe we could explore, find some cool things, supplies to take with us wherever we're going when your brother returns?"

Sasuke nodded and stood while Naruto crawled out from under the bed. He couldn't help but grin again as they took off down the hallway. The next room they entered appeared to be another guest room, with a bed and empty bookshelf, but more books and scrolls tucked away in the closet. Many of them were about training, or gardening and cooking, and several were old fantasy stories that had been printed over fifty years ago. Sasuke looked at the books with interest, and put them on the floor outside the room to remember to take them with him when returning to his guest room.

The next room, the last one in the hall was a master suite. Unlike the others, it wasn't covered in sheets, and everything was covered in a fine layer of dust and dirt. A copy of the same picture of a long haired man with a silver-haired child on his shoulders was found on the nightstand, and an assortment of kunai and short swords was haphazardly placed in rows on a cot by the window. Cleaning and sharpening tools were left by the weapons.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "It's like whoever was here just disappeared, and didn't know he wouldn't be coming back."

"It's strange it wasn't cleaned out like the rest of the rooms." Sasuke slowly crossed over to the chest of drawers, peeking inside. He held up a man's navy blue ninja shirt and an old kunai pouch before gasping, "Naruto, look!"

Sasuke dug deeper in the bottom drawer, and pulled out an old fashioned ANBU mask with the face of a dog painted elegantly on the surface. "This is a real ANBU mask, from before the Hokage's rule."

They studied the armor and weapons more closely, paying attention to the scratched matte-finish on the chest plates and arm guards. This room made the house and the family that lived there previously more real, and Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine. The empty child's room he had originally intruded hadn't given him the forlorn feeling that this room did. "Let's explore elsewhere, Sasuke. There's still the upstairs."

But on their way up the creaking wooden stairs, Naruto didn't feel any better. The air seemed thicker, the hall darker. There was only a small loft and single door on the second floor. Naruto watched as Sasuke pushed the door open, revealing a dusty study. Sasuke was about to step in and head for the numerous bookshelves, but stopped, paling as he stared at the ground.

Following his gaze, Naruto found his stomach dropping. There was a dark stain on the wooden floor, obviously scrubbed at, but still apparent and forever embedded into the grain. _Blood._ Sasuke stepped backwards, almost colliding with Naruto. He forcefully shut the door and the two boys scurried downstairs. Naruto caught Sasuke's eyes and a silent agreement passed between them to never go upstairs again.

Needing to break the tension and focus on something else, Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Uh…come on, I can show you what I've been working on for the last couple of days. Do you know anything about sealing?"

* * *

Shikamaru had been summoned by the Hokage. It had been almost a year since he had last been called to visit his father, and while he ached to see him now, anticipation curled in his stomach and made his hands shake. The Hokage was furious. Whoever had escaped from the Root prison ten days prior was highly important; this was the longest the village had been on lockdown. Shikamaru knew this visit wouldn't be like the others. He remembered Choza's words before they had left to inform Danzo of Mizuki-sensei's treasonous intentions. _Don't, for one second, think that he won't hurt you._ Shikamaru could guess what was coming.

Rather than inviting Shikamaru into his office, the Hokage stepped out, immediately placing a hand on his shoulder and steering the boy toward the stairs while nodding for a Root shinobi to take Shikamaru's bag. The only sound was the echo of their footsteps on the stone and Shikamaru's trembling breath. He couldn't hide his fear and sorrow. As much as he wanted to appear strong and show undying resentment and hatred for the Hokage, Shikamaru could only try and quell the panging in his chest. They were not heading toward Shikaku's usual cell, but instead further downstairs.

A long dark hall extended before Shikamaru, it was cold and quiet except for the faint chiming of chains. Coming from the left of the hall, warm yellow light was spilling out, and when Danzo led Shikamaru into the light so that it almost blinded his left eye, he didn't want to turn his head and look. The old man's hand gripped the back of his neck and forced Shikamaru to turn.

His father was on his knees, but had his wrists strung up to the wall behind him by chains so that he was at an awkward angle leaning back toward the wall. There were bruises on his face and chest, with small slashes here and there, but what worried Shikamaru more was how thin and dehydrated his father appeared. His eyes were bloodshot and his ribs stuck out and he was trembling. Danzo placed a heavy metal key in Shikamaru's palm.

"You may release him and take him back to his cell." The old man hesitated for a minute. "Today, you may have an exception from the usual rules."

The Hokage then turned to leave, shuffling back down the dark hall. Shikamaru gripped the key in his hand and growled in frustration. He stepped closer to his father, wrinkling his nose at the man's sweaty stench. He gently patted Shikaku's unbruised cheek and waited until his brown eyes focused on him.

"Tou-san." Shikamaru can feel tears start to flow down his face, but Shikaku just smiles at him.

Moving slowly, trying to cause his dad the least amount of pain, Shikamaru wraps an arm under Shikaku's shoulders and lifts him up just enough to reach down and unfold his dad's legs so that they lie straight out in front of him. He reaches up with the key then to try and unlock the cuffs around the man's wrists, but curses when he realized he can't do so with one hand. He has to let Shikaku hang with his whole weight to grab the cuff and insert the heavy key. The man grunts as his arm is released and falls to the ground.

"Try and hold on," Shikamaru says as he bends to grab the freed arm and wrap it around his own shoulders. His dad's hand desperately grips Shikamaru's back, but he barely has the ability to hold himself off of the floor.

"Tou-san, if you fall, I don't know if I have the strength to pick you up again. Please, please hold on tight."

Shikamaru can't help the sob that rips through his lips, as his father grunts and fumbles his way to a stronger hold. He quickly reaches up to release the second cuff before dropping the key and wrapping both arms around Shikaku's chest. He backs up and twists until his father's leaning on Shikamaru's back and slowly makes his way toward the stairs. _Four flights. I can do this._

Both he and his father are huffing and stumbling, and on the second flight, Shikaku completely passes out. Shikamaru is able to lean the man against the wall and brace him upright, rubbing on his sternum. Thankfully, Shikaku comes to and is able to again collapse on his son as they continue stumbling. Shikamaru's shoulders and arms and legs ache and Shikaku's face is grey and taught with exhaustion and pain and they have to take a break after every three steps, but they eventually make it upstairs. He drags his dad over to the cot in the cell and tries to lay him down gently but ends up just dumping the man on the bed and collapsing to the floor.

He notices his bag in the corner of the room by the door and reaches over to grab it. Shikamaru unscrews the cap of his water canteen and tries to lift his father's head as he tips small sips into Shikaku's mouth.

Shikamaru is given all afternoon and night to look after Shikaku. He helps him drink and feeds him small bites of food, he cleans the cuts and rubs salve on the bruises, he rubs his limbs as they cramp from being strung up for too long, and he cries. This visit, they're allowed to talk, but Shikamaru can't bring himself to share what has happened since he last saw his father. He doesn't know what to say other than _this is my fault. I spoke out against the Hokage. I let anger control my actions and words. I wasn't cautious enough. I failed._

Shikaku seemed to know anyway. He just smiled kindly. _You did the right thing._

 _Not for this, Tou-san, nothing is worth this punishment._

 _No family is above another. You did right by the Inuzuka._

His dad slept. Shikamaru did not.


	13. Chapter 12

**New chapter, finally! Yeah its been a couple of weeks...lo siento.**

 **Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

* * *

Even as Sasuke followed the ragtag group of four, he felt a loneliness in his chest and an ache in his throat like there was a stone caught in his trachea. He had to slowly breath around the pain, knowing if he could let himself cry it would disappear, but he was unable to allow tears to fall. Instead he gripped the straps of his backpack, hefting it higher and resolutely looked at Sakura's heels several feet ahead.

Itachi had come alone with Shisui to sneak the three pre-teens out of Konohagakure. His kaa-san had been unable to safely leave the compound, being watched too closely by Root. . Sasuke had almost cried then, but Itachi had given him a long look, both of his long-fingered hands on Sasuke's shoulders before tugging him in for a hug. Any tears that had clung to his lashes were absorbed by his brother's shirt as he shut his eyes and let himself be enveloped. When he had stepped away, Itachi had handed him the jutsu filled scroll saying, "You're no longer a child, Sasuke. Be quick, be clever, and be careful. After you complete your mission, you can come home. Maybe you'll be taller than I am then."

Sasuke couldn't give his brother a smile at the quip. He just solemnly took his backpack and supplies, strapping his father's blade on his hip and a new kunai pouch on his thigh. The old house was as dark and dusty as always, and in the gloom Itachi's sharingan watched him as he prepared.

Sasuke's voice had been breathy as he said his goodbyes. "T-tell Kaa-san I love her, and if you see Tou-san, if he is ever released, that I love him too. And Izumi, she is like a too kind sister, and Mayuri-san who still grows tomatoes in her garden for me, and Haruto-kun who was always so eager to have me teach him what I learned in the Academy, and Riku-san with his bitter tea he always shared—"

Itachi had cut him off. "They love you, otouto. They won't forget you."

He had looked at his feet then, studying the dirt stuck in his toenails. Itachi wouldn't breathe a word of him to his family, he couldn't indicate he knew anything about Sasuke's whereabouts.

Giving Itachi another hug, Sasuke had whispered, "I don't want to ever be taller than you, nii-san."

In his backpack, Sasuke carried a tarp and blanket, a sharpening stone, a scroll of Uchiha jutsus, a small pot for cooking, extra ration bars, and a letter from his mother that he had yet to read. Ahead of him, Sakura was walking quietly, probably also lost in her own thoughts. She had had no one to say goodbye to as they left. Itachi had hugged her, but the only one she was close to in Konoha now was Izumi, and due to the other girl's old wound, she wouldn't have been able to easily sneak out of the compound. Sakura had no letter, no jutsu filled scroll, no weapons passed down from family members, and no word from their classmates as they didn't know Sasuke and Sakura would be leaving.

Beyond Sakura was Naruto and Shisui. Sasuke still heard the surprise and desperation of Naruto's voice echoing in his ears as he said _Shisui-nii_ when the older escapee had appeared behind Itachi. Apparently they had been in the same cell for the last five years, and while Sasuke also thought of Shisui as _Shisui-nii_ , he felt that title now belonged to Naruto more. It wasn't resentment that he felt toward the blond, Sasuke knew whatever horrors they faced in the Root prison must have been horrible and they'd been lucky to find sympathy and friendship as cellmates, but he did feel slight jealousy, that Naruto didn't have to face the outside world alone yet.

The other boy would soon, enough. In two days, Shisui would be leaving them for his own mission. But Sasuke couldn't bring himself to cut him some slack. While Naruto was up quietly chatting with Shisui, Sasuke and Sakura were alone and miserable and afraid.

Sasuke grit his teeth and turned his thoughts to their mission. They were to head toward Wave, and follow the ghostly breadcrumbs left by the two elusive Sannin, Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama. _Old Konoha will need them to make its last stand._ Itachi and Shisui explained the importance of the mission, and when Naruto had expressed a cold vehemence on wanting to just assassinate Danzo and let the government fall apart, Itachi's face had turned a pecurliar grey while Shisui gravely stated why that wouldn't work – the Hokage had chosen a loyal and powerful successor ready to continue his reign.

* * *

Kakashi was remembering a certain lesson given to him from Kushina-nee while he was in ANBU. The memory of it was vague, unlike when he was in a heated battle, he kept his hitai-ate over Obito's eye and so it was not recorded with the sharingan. But he remembered the way the sun glinted in through the kitchen window above the sink and shot her red hair aflame. Kushina had kidnapped him as soon as Kakashi left the ANBU headquarters, somehow informed of exactly what his next mission entailed. She pranced over with two bowls of steaming ramen and sat across from him, her face turning more serious as she blew on her serving, and Kakashi felt his spine straighten as he realized she wasn't just up to her usual nosiness.

"Undercover work is the most difficult of all, Kakashi. Not because of the acting, or the diligence involved in keeping one's story straight, or the sneaking around to find whatever information you're after. Ninjas are trained for these things since very young, and a genius like you will be exceptional."

She gave a teasing wink at him before growing solemn again.

"When a shinobi is alone for an extended period of time in enemy territory, he will simultaneously forget what he his fighting for and desperately long for it. Do you know what _it_ is? It's family. Friendship. Longing to belong. You will miss your family here, so much that you'll want to belong to your family there."

Kakashi almost snorted but refrained. He was working on not being rude. "We are taught to always remember they are the enemy."

Kushina shook her head and patiently wrapped her fingers around the ramen bowl. "Humans are social creatures by nature. On a long-term undercover mission, you _will_ make friends with the enemy, there is a point when acting bleeds into truth and the charade transforms into sincerity. It is okay, it happens naturally. But at the end of the day, you must base your actions on trust. Do you trust your new friends?"

Kakashi slurped his noodles before replying. "You can't. Because you will have been betraying them all that time…if they find out…"

"Their village will bring them comfort, whereas you will have brought them pain. Traitors are not treated kindly. So, _don't_ get caught on this next mission, Kakashi-kun."

Opening his eyes, Kakashi dispelled the memory. When he had returned from that too-long mission, Kushina had announced that she was pregnant. He had just torn himself away from people he had genuinely liked in a village he had grown to respect and returned to the people he genuinely loved in a village that had only brought him sorrow. He couldn't share and celebrate the news that Minato-sensei and Kusina-nee were having a baby with Rin and Obito, because they were dead, and his enemy-friends were from another hidden village and didn't even know who Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee were and they wouldn't want to hear from Kakashi anyways because he had betrayed them.

Sighing, Kakashi remembered how dismissive and rude he was to Obito when they were kids. Obito was a loser. He was always two steps behind Kakashi, and he forever would be because now Kakashi wasn't sure he could trust Obito.

Kakashi slowly rolled out of bed and grabbed his pack. He pulled the Akatsuki cloak tight around himself before leaping onto the railing of his balcony. The rain was soft and light, and it was not as cold as it usually was. He had asked Leader-sama if he could take a few missions on his own, simple, mercenary work if he had to, and had promised to put the money he earned into savings for when Akatsuki was ready to begin the hunt for the jinchuuriki. His first stop, would be Wave. Kakashi had heard rumors about the business tycoon, Gato, currently in residence on the small island.

* * *

Hinata was slipping back to her room after wrapping her knuckles in linen bandages. She had practiced her juuken training that evening, but was now preparing for bed, when she had noticed her father wasn't in his room, but rather slipping out the front door. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she nervously followed him.

The sun was descending in the west, and she knew curfew was fast approaching, but Tou-san didn't seem to be leaving the compound, he was just going to the clan training grounds, specifically one she knew Neji-nii-san frequented. She knew that her father knew that she was following him, nothing could get past the stern man, byakugan or no, but she settled in the cool grass and leaned against a tree as Tou-san sat seiza in front of a training post. She jumped when Hiashi spoke.

"It's gotten worse, Brother. I think the lockdown is going to be made permanent, restricting shinobi movements even more. The pay is cut further every month, and they are limiting the amount of food sold to the shinobi. Root is weakening us. We cannot make a stand now, but the longer we wait the worse it will become."

In a rare show of distress, Hinata's father ripped the grass out of the ground with is right hand.

"Mikoto-san says we should wait, but I learned today that Danzo wants to put all Academy students and retired and active shinobi in the southwestern section of the village. He wants us herded like cows. We will only weaken further then. I don't know if Old Konoha will agree with me that we must act now."

Hiashi signed and sat quietly in front of the post. Hinata felt for her father. With her mother dead and her uncle somewhere in a Root prison or training camp, all he had to advise him were the grouchy elders. She gathered her courage and stood to make her way to Hiashi.

Stopping just behind his right shoulder, Hinata murmured, "Let's go back to the house, Tou-san, before the curfew."

Her father turned and gazed at her with pale eyes, a slight twitching at the corner of his mouth. He looked old and grouchy as usual, but also indescribably sad.


	14. Chapter 13

**New chapter! I know it's been a while...**

 **Thanks for reading and reviewing! :)**

* * *

It had been three days since Shisui left them. Naruto didn't cry when the older boy turned his back on them, shouldering his own pack and leaping into the trees. He had felt a hole tearing in his chest, and heard Danzo-sama's whispered words in the back of his mind _monsters do not have friends_ but he tenaciously ignored them. It was hard not to reminisce on the days back in his cell, he felt safe in the small, dark space and in most of his memories Shisui was there, filling in the silence by teaching him or telling him stories or showing him ninja tricks. Naruto knew, that cell should have been cold and lonely and miserable, he knew how horrifying the Root prison was, he knew firsthand what kind of torture went on in the cold cells, but Shisui had made that dark place home.

Sakura and Sasuke were weird, and worse, they thought he was weird. He could tell from the way they looked at him sometimes. When he took his sandals off within the first half hour of parting ways with Shisui, saying he much preferred to walk barefoot. When he refused to eat the berries and squirrel they had cooked for dinner, and instead ate his ration bars. When he had pulled out the stolen stuffed dog he had taken from the old house as they climbed into their bedroll each night. The communicated with each other using prolonged looks and slight shakes of their heads and shrugs of their shoulders and Naruto felt left out. Yesterday afternoon, he had been surprised when he got a rise out of Sakura, earning a loud _shut up!_ and more ranting from the pink-haired girl after two hours of his incessant chatter and questions. After the girl's outburst, Sasuke then directed a shoulder shrug his way and Naruto at least felt companionship in the fact that they both thought Sakura was crazy.

They were now stopped for the night; Sasuke had managed to kill a rabbit and was cooking it over a fire while Sakura had gathered nuts from the trees earlier that day. Naruto had to admit, the scent of the sizzling meet smelled enticing, but he was afraid how his stomach would react to the new food if his experience with growing accustomed to the ration bars was any example. But they had occasionally had meat in the soup served in the Root prison, and Naruto was willing to risk it.

Sasuke gave a self-satisfied smirk as he finished cooking the rabbit hand handed a piece of it on a stick to Naruto. He quickly finished setting up the barrier seals around their small camp and went to sit by his two companions. He tried to refuse the handful of nuts Sakura passed his way.

"Eat them, Naruto, we only have a couple more days until we reach Wave and you need the nutrition."

He couldn't refuse her large eyes that shone with an apology for her rude behavior, resolving to eat slowly.

"So, what do we know about Jiraiya-sama again?"

Sasuke frowned at his toes before answering. "He's tall and has white hair, and can summon toads."

"He's also the biggest pervert, according to Izumi-chan." Sakura pitched in. "We know he was last seen in Wave, but that was several years ago. But looking for Tsunade-sama seems more tedious as it has been even longer since anyone has heard from her."

Naruto popped the nuts into his mouth; they were quite crunchy and plain. "They were Orochimaru-sensei's teammates, but that's all I know."

There it was again. That stare that Sasuke and Sakura gave him that labeled Naruto as _weird_. Sasuke's stare turned more pointed.

"You were taught by the Snake-sannin?"

Naruto cleared his throat a bit. "Uh, yeah. In the Root prison…he taught me sealing."

Sakura shivered. "Didn't he experiment on hundreds of people, even children?"

Naruto was starting to feel queasy. "Well…he did a lot of experiments. But he's a smart guy."

Sakura turned away and started unrolling her tarp and bedding avoiding Naruto's gaz. She noticeably put herself on the other side of Sasuke and Naruto tried not to let the obvious slight hurt his feelings. Sasuke rolled his dark eyes and continued to eat, occasionally glancing at Naruto and his slowly disappearing dinner.

It wasn't too much later during the night that Naruto dragged himself from his bedroll, gripping his cramping stomach as his dinner was regurgitated. He felt Sasuke's eyes on him again from where the other boy had been on watch, but Naruto couldn't care much about his dignity as he again gagged. When he was done, he scooted away from the vomit and collapsed on his back with his arms and legs spread, breathing deeply and gazing at the stars peeking through the tree leaves. If only they had an endless supply of ration bars. His water canteen suddenly blocked his view of the canopy. Naruto moved his gaze to Sasuke's impassive face as he held the container toward him and swallowed harshly before reaching up to take it. After taking small sips and feeling well enough to sit up, Naruto offered to take his watch early and let Sasuke sleep.

* * *

The next morning, the three pre-teens found themselves running. A loud yell had come from up ahead on the road, and so they dashed into the surrounding forest. Sakura was keeping up an impressive rant as they huffed and puffed.

"This is idiocy! When you hear someone scream, you don't run toward it! We're supposed to stay out of danger!"

Naruto was yelling back. "This is the direction we have to go anyways! And, if whoever it is that needs help is from Wave, and we help them then maybe they'll secure us passage across the sea!"

To both of their surprise, Sasuke then raised his voice. "Both of you shut up and keep running or they'll be dead before we get there!"

Desperately trying not to trip on a branch or slow the other two down, Naruto focused on sprinting faster. He finally saw through the trees and to his right three people. As they got closer, he distinguished two dark-haired masked men and an elderly man held still by a long chain. Sasuke pushed forward, almost growling.

"Naruto, you and I will just charge. Sakura, take care of the old man."

Naruto didn't have time to second guess Sasuke's haphazard plan, they were recklessly gaining on their targets. He gripped the hilt of his tanto, the broken sword he had found in the closet of the room he had stayed in in the abandoned house. He had spent many hours applying careful seals to piece together the pieces and ensure that the blade wouldn't again break, and he prayed with his whole soul that it wouldn't fail him. He hadn't had too many hours of practice with Shisui in using a tanto, but hopefully enough. He leapt at the masked-man closet to him, landing on the right side of the man's back and was promptly thrown off, missing his target of stabbing the man in the neck. A metal claw came his way and Naruto rolled and made another leap to his left. He stumbled back before trying to get closer, but the tanto didn't have the reach that the chained claw did. He rolled away again and threw a kunai at the man's shoulder.

He was too slow. The enemy had dodged his kunai, and still yanked the tip of the metal claw into Naruto's forearm. A yowl left his lips as the skin tore, and he felt something suspiciously burning slide into his veins. Naruto managed to defend himself from the claw the second time, his tanto making a screeching sound as it slashed the weapon away. The metal of the blade seemed to almost glow white as it flashed through the air. Naruto grit his teeth. In his peripheral he saw Sasuke faring a bit better, he had managed to overwhelm the other nin with a barrage of shuriken. Sakura had grabbed the old man by the arm and dragged him into the trees on the side of the road, where he had promptly fainted. As the ninja again went for Naruto, she unleashed several kunai, one of which landed in his shoulder blade, making him snarl. But Naruto didn't allow him to turn his attention on the girl; he dove forward, slashing at the man's ankles. He scrambled to get up and out of the man's reach, but his left arm collapsed beneath him. A punch landed on his back, knocking the wind out of him. He heard a whooshing through the air and the rattle of the chain as the vicious weapon descended.

Nothing happened. The claw never landed. He peeked up to see the dark-haired ninja flying back down the road, landing on top of the other. Sasuke was suddenly at his side, heaving a stumbling Naruto up and over to Sakura, where the three stood back to back, weapons raised. Naruto could feel his knees shaking.

"Dobe," Sasuke muttered, "Are you okay?"

Naruto nodded. "Poisoned. I—I have to let the poison out."

He awkwardly turned his tanto around and dragged it down his already scraped arm, letting loose a spray of blood. Sasuke grappled at his right wrist to tug it away from his forearm and Sakura let out a small yelp as she watched and was sprayed with a sprinkle of his blood.

"You idiot!" She hissed. But instead of scooting closer to Sasuke, she seemed to step closer to Naruto, to make up for his wounded arm.

Naruto would have gaped in amazement at the actions of his companions, but suddenly a large hand was jerking his sword out of his right hand. Sasuke brought his own tanto up higher in defense, a scowl on his face. The man in front of them however, just hummed.

"What an interesting tanto." The tall man tilted the blade so that the sunlight caught and made it appear to glow white again.

The man wore a black cloak with red clouds, and had a black mask covering the lower half of his face as well as a slashed Konoha hitai-ate slanted over one eye. He had a shock of white hair standing on his head. He flipped the tanto again, and briefly studied the curling seal Naruto had put on its base, his dark eye narrowing. He swiftly turned the tanto down and handed it hilt-first to Naruto. Cautiously, Naruto accepted it back and shifted it to a defensive position.

"Maa, no need for all that. I simply wanted to kill the Demon Brothers. They'll fetch me a decent bounty. You three are simply intriguing."

They looked toward where the now named Demon Brothers were running away. It was Sakura who bravely spoke up. "They're leaving, sir. You'd better go after them if you want that bounty."

The white-haired missing nin looked up from a small orange book and gave an eye smile. "Ah, I can always catch them later. Now, tell me what are you three children doing alone in the middle of the forest?"

* * *

Coincidentally, the white-haired man was also traveling to Wave. He said he was looking for work. The old man that had been attacked by the Demon Brothers gave his name as Tazuna, and jumped on the chance to employ the missing-nin to assist in building a bridge to connect Wave to the rest of Fire Country.

"We could use a strong ninja like you!" He'd said.

Through his mask, the man mumbled, "Hmm, Tazuna-san, will I be paid?"

The old man took a swig from his sake bottle. "To be sure! There's money in Wave. It'll be no problem for you to get it, I assume." He mumbled the last part before stumbling a bit as he turned to the three children. "There's plenty of work for you too! You can stay with my daughter and me; we'll make sure you're decently fed."

They stared at him blankly but continued shuffling behind the two adults. Naruto rubbed the bandage Sakura had given him after disinfecting his arm. He'd convinced her not to use iryou-nin jutsu, stating that he healed quickly, but hadn't been able to refuse the bandage and ointment. He was still shaky as he walked, but Sasuke and Sakura were sticking close by his sides. They eyed the two men ahead suspiciously.

"He's got to be Jiraiya-sama." Sakura whispered.

Naruto nodded along. "He's tall and has white hair."

"He's reading porn."

Sasuke cut in. "But we don't know if he can summon toads."

"And Orochimaru-sensei always called Jiraiya-sama a 'big brute'. He doesn't look so brutish to me…"

It was true. The masked missing-nin was too lanky, and they had never heard of Jiraiya wearing a black and red clouded cloak. Or a mask. Or that he had one eye.

Sasuke set his jaw and started stomping forward. "Let's just ask him."

As they neared the man, he didn't look up from his book, even when Sakura rather loudly cleared her throat.

Naruto decided to just interrupt the man's reading. He asked loudly, "Are you Jiraiya?"

* * *

Shikamaru had crept out of his house and around the roofs of the many levels of the Hokage Tower. He wasn't too terrible at stealth, but he was relying heavily on his wit and shadow manipulation to help him stay hidden. Asuma-sensei had been summoned to the Hokage Tower late during their evening practice, right before curfew. After sneaking out to see if their sensei had returned to his own home later and seeing it dark and empty, Shikamaru couldn't help but feel foreboding.

He was perched outside Danzo's office, covering every inch of his skin in shadows and suppressing his chakra, and he just _knew_ that the Root nin across the roof knew Shikamaru was there, but for some reason he hadn't been apprehended. So, Shikamaru sat there and continued to watch and listen. It was just Danzo and Asuma-sensei in the office.

"I can't end the lockdown yet, but we're losing clients to Suna. The Root nin not on ANBU missions need to stay closer to Konoha to protect it, but the loss of the lower ranked mission money is causing us to lose funding."

"What about the arms dealing? The other hidden villages buy a lot of our weapons."

The old man snorted. "They buy it because it's cheaply made and cheaply sold. You know this."

Asuma-sensei looked a bit put out. "What about food? Homura-san said crop production has only been decreasing in the last two years and the stores are running extremely low. Should we not focus on that also?"

The Hokage's pacing paused for a minute before continuing. "Homura also suggested trading the weapons for food, but that is out of the question."

Shikamaru balked. Money was more important than food? Asuma-sensei looked down at his hands and no emotion passed over his face.

"Since your father's passing and your return to the village, I have treated you like a son, Asuma. I need you to understand, Konoha cannot be seen as weak."

"A hungry army is a weak army, Hokage-sama."

Danzo's fingertips glowed red as he swept his hand out. "We will not beg the other villages for food! That is not our biggest concern, anyhow."

Asuma's dark eyes casually flicked toward the window and Shikamaru hastily rechecked that his chakra was sufficiently suppressed. His knees were weak with the effort of maintaining the jutsu for so long, but he needed to hear more of the conversation. The Root nin was now staring right at him, but still made no move. He forced the shadows tighter around himself, causing his vision to go blurry for a moment, but ultimately steeled his quivering and turned back to the window.

"If I don't have the boy when _he_ returns, Konoha will perish." The Hokage hissed. "That madman!"

Asuma looked like he wanted to roll his eyes. "You've mentioned him at least twice this evening, Hokage-sama. Please, tell me who _he_ is."

The Hokage shook his head. Finally sitting down, back straight and bandaged face serious, the man brought his still burning hand to Asuma-sensei's face and clasped his jaw, forcing the younger man to look him in the eye. Shikamaru squirmed, watching as Asuma's skin and beard was singed badly. His sensei was not a small man, but sitting before the Hokage, he appeared to be a child.

"I have chosen a successor, and another to succeed after him. You will never be enough to be Hokage. But, you will have the knowledge about a man known as Uchiha Madara. I expect you to advise them."

Shikamaru desperately tried to keep a grip on his chakra, but could feel his control slipping. He _needed_ to hear the rest of the conversation, but would soon be caught if he stayed. He stumbled to the edge of the roof, wondering how he would get down and back home in his exhaustion. The Root nin across from him suddenly shifted, and Shikamaru was not fast enough to dodge the man's grab and was abruptly knocked senseless.


	15. Chapter 14

**So...it has be a while, sorry. Finally got this chapter out, next one though should be pretty exciting!**

 **Thanks for reading and reviewing! :)**

 **Also thanks for sticking with me, if you're still reading. :)**

* * *

Shikamaru felt himself moving swiftly through cool, damp air. It smelled of dirt and dust, and he gathered he was underground. From his position on somebody's back, he forced his body to remain lax as he opened his eyes. He was being carried by the same Root nin that had knocked him out outside of the Hokage Tower. The man was running silently and quickly, urgency in his grip on Shikamaru's legs. He was still too tired to put up much of a fight, and despite the fear and worry curling in his stomach, Shikamaru decided to just close his eyes again.

Until the man threw him on the ground against the tunnel wall. Shikamaru jerked back and stared as the Root nin stretched a few hand signs in front of them and wood erupted from the floor to block off the tunnel. It was silent for a minute before a large foot came crashing through the branches, tearing them apart without mercy. A man with an old-fashioned ANBU mask attacked the Root nin, fists and feet and katana flying faster than Shikamaru's eyes could follow. The Root ninja kept summoning more branches and wooden spines, and they tore at the opposing ninja's skin, but still neither relented.

Another traditional ANBU masked nin darted through the hole in the shield of trees blocking the tunnel. It was a woman, no less quick than her companion and carrying a kunai. She dodged and leapt over several wooden tails grabbing for her, shoving the kunai under the Root nin's throat as the man grabbed his arms. Shikamaru could see the red of a sharingan spin his kidnapper into unconsciousness. She then turned to him, and Shikamaru couldn't look away, also falling into sleep once again.

Shikamaru had awakened in a dark room, on a small cot and sat for what felt like hours. He had found a letter pinned to his shirt. An offer of upmost secrecy. Old Konoha had stolen him from Root, locked him up, and given him a mission which he didn't really have a choice to not accept. They wanted him to spy on his sensei, and when he had the chance in his meetings with the Hokage, to spy on him as well. Shikamaru scowled, he had grown to respect Asuma-sensei. Old Konoha was fighting dirty.

The last line of the letter read:

 _Upon your agreement, the Root ninja found guilty of kidnapping you will be silenced._

If he didn't agree, the Root nin would be allowed to live and run to report Shikamaru to his superiors, and Old Konoha would most likely keep him locked up _for his protection_ much like Sakura had been years ago. Shikamaru couldn't consider that option. As nice as napping in a cell all day sounded, he couldn't leave Chouji and Ino, and Team Eight. He couldn't leave his mother, and the thought of losing the rare visits with his father made panic start to set in. He was already growing to hate this underground cell. Old Konoha knew what they were doing, they were _shinobi_. They couldn't afford to play nice, and once Shikamaru put on his hitai-ate, he was loyal to Konoha, whether the new regime or the old.

Shinobi were also human though, and for all their training, shinobi were still ruled by love and fear. Danzo knew this, and ruled by love and fear: disobey and die, obey and your family will prosper. Successfully survive the training camps, and lose your humanity.

One reason Shikamaru's Academy class was watched so closely was because they were all children of suspected dissenters. It looked like he was now about to become a full-fledged dissenter. Shikamaru put his face in his hands and tried to reason with himself. _It seems like one big decision now, but surely I will make bigger ones later in life. So, it is really not a big decision, not a big deal at all._

Shikamaru sighed. "I agree to your offer, now please let me out."

Around ten minutes later, the door opened and Uchiha Mikoto stepped in, followed by a boy with the pale eyes of the Hyuuga.

Sasuke's mother looked tired and strained, and her dark eyes had an unhappy tension about them. But her mouth was set in a determined line, and her movements were steady as she sat on the tatami mat across from Shikamaru. The Hyuuga followed suit.

"I won't offend you by thanking you for your agreement."

Shikamaru was unable to be mature enough to withhold another annoyed sigh. He was sat cross legged and rested his chin in his right hand. The Hyuuga was giving him a disapproving look.

Mikoto-san continued and nodded toward the pale-eyed boy. "You will report to Hyuuga Neji. Neji-san is in a situation much like yours, he gathers information on the members of his genin team. I think you two will enjoy becoming shogi rivals."

Mikoto-san stood, and gazed at him with her dark eyes before walking toward the door. "Neji-san will lead you out."

Shikamaru decided to straighten his posture before addressing Neji. He shifted to sit on his knees and gave a slight tilt of his head. "Do you spy on your whole team, Neji-san?"

The other boy opened a storage scroll and took out a wooden shogi set. "Yes, my teammates and my sensei."

Neji began setting up the game. Shikamaru watched, wanting to close his eyes and just fall asleep but the anxiety pumping through his veins made him jittery.

Neji gave a small sniff. "My teammates are not disgraceful shinobi, nor are they disloyal to Konoha. Their bravery is different than ours, but not less."

Shikamaru let out another sigh and gestured toward the game board. "We're determining a code?"

A small smile graced Neij's face as he hummed.

* * *

The three brats thought Kakashi was Jiraiya. He went along with the idea until they asked him to summon a toad. He waived his hand and said, "Maa, toads are so annoying. I don't feel like summoning one."

They stared at him for a minute before the hope died in their eyes as the ridiculous notion left their tiny heads. Smart kids. But he felt bad for letting them down.

"I do know the guy." He flipped his Icha Icha novel toward them. "See, got his signature right here on the cover! After this wonderful heroic trip to help the people of Wave, I'll give you a hint to his whereabouts."

They stared at him again before grumbling and turning around, leaving him to trudge along next to the alcoholic bridge builder. They were vicious, little things. Naïve and unprepared for a life on the run, but tenacious and untrusting, which could get them far enough until they learned from experience. It was evident they didn't know each other well, at least they didn't know Naruto, and the blond boy danced around the other two with caution and uncertainty. But they stuck together in the face of an enemy. It was good enough for Kakashi; his own little dream team.

It was Sakura who eventually began walking slower so that her steps fell next to his. She twiddled her dirty thumbs and picked at the dried skin around her cuticles before finally speaking.

"Kakashi-san, do you…um…do you think maybe you could teach us something? You seem like a strong ninja."

Oh, they were even eager to learn! How precious. Kakashi hummed. What could he teach twelve-year olds? He painfully thought back to the early lessons Minato-sensei had taught Obito and Rin.

"Do you know how to tree-walk?"

Sakura's pink head nodded up and down. "We covered that in our third year in the Academy."

Ah, of course Danzo would instigate a much more rigorous Academy curriculum. Kakashi felt his lips thin at the thought. Well, they were outside Konoha now and out from under the man's reign. Maybe he could teach them something to protect themselves. He wasn't the worst missing-nin they might encounter.

"Do you know your chakra nature?"

Another nod from the pink head. "I'm earth natured."

Kakashi closed his book and slipped it in his pocket. "Copy these hand signs. I imagine you learned how to trip someone taller than you? It will help if your opponent is on the ground, the jutsu will be easier in the beginning."

Sakura dutifully manipulated her fingers in a perfect copy of his. "What does the jutsu do?"

"Hm, it makes dirt flow up your opponent's nose and into the skull, eroding away at his or her brain."

Little hands froze halfway through changing to the _bird_ sign. Kakashi stopped walking when he realized Sakura had fallen behind. She was standing in the road, looking up at him with watery green eyes and a slightly pale face. Looking at his other companions, he noticed Tazuna-san also staring, and looking a little ill. Sasuke and Naruto had matching wide eyes, before Sasuke's turned into a glare at Kakashi. Realization blanketed Kakashi with a hammering heart and twinge of guilt. Maybe a defensive jutsu would have been better to start with.

Sakura made a noise in the back of her throat. "Thank—uh, I will practice it." She scampered ahead to slide next to Sasuke.

Four hours later found the four of them settling down for the night. Kakashi had thought a lot about how to be a better teacher, and while Tazuna and Sasuke had been cooking squirrels over a small fire, Kakashi had taught the spiraling-wind jutsu to Naruto and the earth-dome jutsu to Sakura. She took to it immediately, after asking forty questions about the theory behind manipulating the chakra and the earth. After dinner, he helped Sasuke practice running an electric current along his arms and hands.

Kakashi felt…proud. Successful. Accomplished. He had helped these three children, and they had performed so well. It gave him a bit of excitement to see their potential, and though he refused to acknowledge it, he felt a small sliver of content. Though he still felt guilty, he grew more respect for the pink-haired girl as she rolled on her sleeping pallet so her back faced her teammates and ran through the signs again for the brain-scraping jutsu.

Two and a half hours since the children and Tazuna were supposed to be asleep; Naruto was still tossing and turning. Kakashi, keeping watch and reading his book sighed loudly, causing the blond boy to jerk up. When blue eyes looked his way, Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow. Naruto huffed and slowly crept out of his pallet. Kakashi just turned the page as Naruto sat by him, staring at the stars between the leaves of the trees.

"Will you teach me the jutsu you taught Sakura? The assassination one?"

Kakashi refused to look up from his book.

Naruto continued in his rough whisper. "Sasuke's killed. I've killed. But, Sakura hasn't yet. I still want to learn that jutsu too though."

"Why, Naruto?"

The blond boy paused for a moment before nodding sagely. "Well, the more jutsus you know the better right? Orochimaru-sensei always said knowledge is power. And…well killing your enemies before they kill you is the first step to survival."

At that Kakashi did look up from his book. He stared straight into the last burning embers of the fire, wondering how to deal with this. _Orochimaru-sensei? What the heck._

"Naruto, will you bring your backpack over here?"

The boy gave him a confused glance before tip-toeing back to his sleeping bag and grabbing the blue backpack. Kakashi opened it and started trifling through the boy's things. Well, stolen things. There was a small book on intermediate jutsus with lovingly dog-eared pages, a notebook he assumed was filled with notes about sealing, a familiar stuffed dog that a boy his age would probably teased for if Sasuke and Sakura knew he'd brought it with him, and the old leather straps and harness that held his white tanto. Kakashi idly flicked his thumb at the tag sewn to the inside of the backpack, his eye squinting at the faint henohenomoheji drawn on it.

"Hmm. Does he have a name?" Kakashi held up the old stuffed dog.

A frown formed on Naruto's face. "No…I never really thought about it."

"Normally, children name their toys when they get them."

"Oh. I didn't get it when I was little…I kind of found it? Recently." The blond nodded. "I found it at an old, abandoned safe house."

Kakashi nodded and placed the little dog as well as all of Naruto's new belongings in his lap. "Well it's yours now, so what do you want to name it?"

Naruto looked bewildered. "I'll think about it."

Shooing the boy away, Kakashi opened his book again. "Good. Now, go think about it until you fall asleep. And also think about whether you truly believe a shinobi's job is to kill first and ask questions later."


	16. Chapter 15

**Hello all, it's been quite a while, sorry. Just life and school, and I want to give out good chapters but when I'm unhappy with one or I don't know if the story is going in the right direction it's hard to find motivation to write. (Nothing different from other writers, I'm sure lol) But I'm glad today I could type out the ideas I've had for this for so long into a coherent mess!**

 **Plus, with being quarantined, school was paused for a bit, things have slowed down. I hope everyone is doing okay. Maybe this'll provide some distraction? But it's a dark story, so if you're not in the mood for that then don't read please!**

 **I really, truly appreciate your reviews! Even if I haven't posted a chapter, I'll still sometimes log on and re-read them, and it'll give me some enthusiasm to work on the chapters-so thank you! Not sure how to reply to each review, since you can't just comment back...but thanks to each of you.** **Anyway, I feel like my author's note is now too long, so I'll just say thanks for reading!**

* * *

13th Year of Danzo's rule

Sasuke let out a huff as he heard Naruto shift in his bedroll for the thirty-eighth time. It was obvious the other boy wasn't comfortable sleeping in the upstairs room of Tazuna's house, but with all his tossing and turning, he was keeping Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke awake into the early morning hours.

Tilting his head, Sasuke eyed Kakashi. The man was on his back, hands folded under his head, and the even rise and fall of his chest made him appear to be deep in sleep. Sasuke highly doubted the act.

Sakura was in the far corner of the room, moonlight from the window cutting across her bedroll and highlighting the pillow she had stuffed over her head in effort to block out the light and Naruto's rustling.

Naruto rolled over yet again, letting his wrist thunk against the wooden floor as he tossed his arm out, and Sasuke wanted to kick him. But when the blond slowly shuffled out from under his covers and made to head for the door, Sasuke sat up quickly and grabbed the bottom of his shirt.

"Dobe," he hissed. "Where do you think you're going."

"Just for a walk. It's too stuffy in here."

Sasuke could barely make out the pout on his face in the dimly lit room. When they stayed in the safe house back in Konoha, Naruto had slept under the bed because the _room was too open_. Now, in this much larger loft, it was too stuffy? He gave a quiet grunt and watched the younger boy shuffle into the hallway before lying back down and trying to finally get some sleep.

A sharp jab in his side made him jerk around to glare at the masked nin beside him. Kakashi's foot was flat on his spine and was pushing him toward the door.

"Follow him. We're sticking with the buddy-system, right?"

Sasuke scowled. "And you're going to just get to sleep here? With Sakura?"

"Maa, I'm not going to do anything untoward. We both need our beauty sleep." Another jab of the man's toe in Sasuke's side prompted him to get to his feet. "Stay close, but if he wants to be left alone, _don't_ irritate him."

Sasuke sighed and nodded. If he didn't irritate the dobe, then the dobe wouldn't irritate him. Things would work out perfectly.

Except, things never worked out perfectly. When Sasuke found Naruto, not far from the old bridge-builder's house, the blond was deep in conversation with some strangely pretty girl in the middle of a flowered meadow. Sasuke hid himself behind a bush and buried his face in his hands. He didn't pull his hair out yet…he just listened.

The dark-haired girl let out a tingling laugh at something Naruto said. "Ah, Naruto-kun, that's silly. If you're only fighting for yourself, you'll surely lose. Life isn't just about survival."

"Well you can't live life if you're not alive!"

Another laugh. "Don't think of it like that. If you're always on both defense and offense, you'll exhaust yourself. Try…to find something to fight for. Something to protect."

Naruto grumbled and twisted his hands in the grass, but Sasuke found the stranger's words sinking into his heart. The ideas behind them sounded like something Itachi would say. He quietly shifted from his crouched position to sitting more comfortably on his bottom.

"Naruto-kun," the girl started speaking again. "When a person has something important to protect, that's when they can become truly strong. For me, that's my precious people—precious person."

Thankfully, Naruto wasn't as dumb as he usually seemed—he had his own brand of paranoia that kept him on his toes. Sasuke held his breath as Naruto's blond head tilted to the side in question.

"You're a ninja?"

A small smile crept onto the stranger's face. "Yes, Naruto-kun. I fight to protect my master. Also, so you know, I'm a boy. You can call me Haku-kun."

Sasuke had already stood and was marching out of the bushes and trees toward Naruto. Once he was side-by-side with the blond he inclined his head and looked down at the other nin.

"What do you want with us then?"

Dark eyes studied Sasuke before Haku replied. "My master, Zabuza, wants Kakashi to stay out of his way. Akatsuki doesn't need whatever money that old man is paying him."

With that, Haku rose elegantly to his feet and bounded across the meadow into the forest. He was too fast, and a sense of anticipation ran down Sasuke's spine at the show of strength. He roughly grabbed Naruto's arm just above his elbow and yanked the blond around, marching them back to Tazuna's house.

"I don't know what you were thinking, Dobe, talking to a suspicious person in a forest in the middle of the night. Didn't Shisui-nii ever teach you about stranger danger?"

Naruto pulled his arm from Sasuke's hand. "I thought he was a pretty girl who was…lost. I don't know. And no, Shisui was too busy trying to keep either of us from being punished or killed."

Sasuke didn't really have anything to say to that.

* * *

Kakashi didn't really seem all that surprised when they passed on Haku's message. His half-lidded eye seemed to droop even more, and his shoulders fell for a brief second before he straightened them.

"Okay. You two get some sleep, Sakura and I will start with an early watch and some strategizing."

Sasuke watched as Sakura raised her head from her pillow to stare at the three of them. Her pink hair was sticking up oddly on the left side and her eyes still gleamed with weariness, but she got up and moved to the bathroom down the hall without a grumble.

It felt like three seconds later that Sasuke was awoken again. Gold sunlight was now pouring through the window, brightening the room. Naruto had also been awoken, and he stared confusedly at Sasuke before they both heard loud yelling from downstairs. It was Sakura.

Fear made Sasuke's heart start to race, and he yanked the covers off him, grabbing his tanto and rolling to his feet. Naruto was right behind him with a kunai and the pouch that had some pre-made seals in it. They didn't bother to be quiet as they thundered down the stairs and into the kitchen where they pulled up short at the sight of the girl yelling at a little boy.

She was towering over Tazuna's grandson, Inari. Tazuna's daughter was standing by the stove, gripping a wooden spoon to her chest as she watched Sakura shriek at her son. Kakashi was just sitting at the table, reading his orange book, unbothered.

"How dare you tell me I'll die! We're here, wanting to help you, risking our lives to help you, and you have the gall to tell me we'll _fail_?! All the sweat I put into training just to be able to mold an ounce of chakra, just to be able to say I can make a difference, I can help someone. You think you're the only one who's parents died? Do you know how selfish—"

Sasuke cut her off, he leapt forward, crossing his arm over her chest and dragging her away from the boy. "Sakura, you're scaring him. He's only a kid."

She was trembling under his arm, and looked like she was about to protest, but instead when she turned to look at Inari, she just stilled. Inari's face was pale, with big tears streaming silently from his eyes and his lips pouting and quivering. He was gripping his hat with both hands, his small, bony knuckles white from the tight hold. Sakura sucked in a breath and slowly pulled away from Sasuke.

"I—" She started, but Inari just turned and dashed out the door.

Sakura turned tearful eyes on Tsunami, but after staring at each other for a moment, Tsunami waved her hand.

"He was rude to you, Sakura-san. Perhaps…he needed such a wake-up call, his attitude since Kaiza's death has been terrible."

Sakura sniffed loudly, and Sasuke almost wanted to tell her _don't you start crying now too_ but he just stepped back and sat next to Kakashi at the table. The man didn't even look up from his book, but the discomfort was practically wafting from his shoulders. When Naruto and Sakura eventually joined them on the bench, it was a quiet and tense breakfast.

* * *

Things were tense for Team Eight. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata got along well, having been friends in the Academy. They already had exceptional teamwork, and their dedication to learning was (compared to Team Ten) stellar. But Kurenai-sensei didn't seem to have much interest in teaching them any new strategies, skills, or jutsus. When Kiba brought this up to his teammates, Hinata had quietly agreed, pressing her fingertips together in contemplation. Shino had replied with his usual logic.

"It is strange," Long fingers pushed his glasses up his nose. "Why? Because even Team Ten is improving in a manner way faster than us. Usually the three of them have more difficulty working together than us."

"They're both more volatile and lazier than we are." Hinata hummed.

Kiba sat opposite his two refined teammates and eyed them. He sat straighter and set his shoulders, ignoring Akamaru as the dog put his paws on Kiba's shoulders from behind him and playfully nipped at his neck. Right. Team Eight were precious, quiet, and eager to learn students, while Asuma-sensei always seemed to be chasing Team Ten around Konoha, begging for their trust in his lessons.

Kurenai-sensei, however, seemed to want as little to do with them as possible. _It can't just be me_ Kiba told himself. _Akamaru and I are rambunctious, sure, but we still want to learn_. If they wanted to honor the promise they had made to their classmates before graduation, Team Eight couldn't afford to fall too far behind. They had to be there for the others when they needed them. They needed Kurenai's attention and instruction.

"We should follow her somehow," Kiba suggested. "See what she's so busy with all the time. Do you think you can bug her, Shino?"

Shino seemed to shrink behind his collar, and his mouth turned down. "I don't know. I am doubting my abilities and discreteness. How terrible of a genin must I be if even my sensei doesn't want to teach me?"

Hinata gave a little whine. "It's not just you, Shino-kun. She didn't give _any_ of us a test before agreeing to be our sensei. But don't think that your skills have gotten worse."

"Yeah! You're still our Number One Bug Guy." Kiba reached out to lightly punch Shino in the arm. The other boy had long since ceased looking affronted at Kiba's friendly punches, or the nickname their class had given him.

"I suppose I can place one on her after training tomorrow. We can follow its chakra trail then."

"Excellent!" Kiba jumped up. "Do either of you want to come over for dinner tonight?"

They both shook their heads. Hinata looked at him with some sadness, but thankfully not pity.

"I'm sorry, Kiba-kun, my father wants to meet with Neji-kun and me soon."

Shino awkwardly tried to give Kiba a shoulder punch of his own. "My parents will expect me back, and curfew is in two hours."

A slight pang made Kiba's heart throb, but he just gave the two a smile and reached back to lift Akamaru over his head and cuddle the quickly growing dog to his chest. "Sure, sure. I'll see you tomorrow!"

Despite the ache in his arms, Kiba refused to put Akamaru down until they reached the gates to the Inuzuka compound. Akamaru gently licked his hand before puffing up his chest and padding silently on his left. Kiba made himself walk tall, and raised his head, placing a small, confident smile on his face as they entered.

The guard just inside the gate gave him a nod. "Kiba-kun, how was training?"

"Great, Hideo-san! Kurenai-sensei has us working hard!" He made a show of flexing his arm and wiping sweat from his brow.

Hideo laughed and gave him a fond smile, but as Kiba continued on his path he couldn't help but overhear the two old ladies shuffling past him. It was always the same whispers, rumors, accusations.

 _Bah, that boy hasn't learned anything since before his sister was arrested._

 _His teammates and sensei are too meek._

 _He's too skinny and immature, can he really make it as the clan leader?_

 _His mom's never home to teach him either. Must've already deemed him the useless runt of the family._

Sure enough, his house was dark and empty when he arrived home. Sighing, Kiba kicked off his shoes and flipped all the lights on the first floor on before making his way to the kitchen.

"Akamaru, should we have fish or beef tonight?"

The dog yipped twice, and Kiba took that as the latter option.

* * *

So far, Kurenai-sensei didn't seem to notice Shino's bug on the back of her bandaged dress. Nor did she notice the three genin following her from far back. Because of Shino's connection to his beetle, and Hinata's ability to see the chakra path it left behind, they were able to follow at a much further distance than most. But that shouldn't have made up for the fact that Kurenai was a jounin.

"Where do you think she's leading us?" Hinata worried at her lip with her teeth, veins around her eyes slightly bulging.

Shino hunched his face in his collar like a turtle and sniffed. "I haven't been to this section of Konoha before. It is…slightly dirty. Compared to most ninja sections."

The frown between Shino's brows indicated his uneasiness and guilt for his disdain of the area. But he was right. This was obviously a poor civilian sector of Konoha, with tightly packed people living in small, grey apartments that rested above small, grey, seedy businesses. The civilians openly stared at the three genin, none too bashful in their whispers.

In his head, Kiba could place the sector on the Konohagakure map. What was once a decent place to live in the fourth ring of seven that surrounded the Hokage Tower, had become deteriorated and overcrowded with lower class civilians after Danzo's reign started pouring more money into the Shinobi operations.

Kiba zipped up his jacket and buried his nose in the fur trim, the smell of the urban area was almost too much, and he sympathized with Akamaru, who didn't have a jacket to help block the stench. He had to jerk his head up though at the sudden commotion in the crowd in front of them.

An old woman was on the ground, using her hands to try and scrape some type of beans and porridge back into the small black pot she'd been carrying. She was squawking and roaring terribly at a barefoot little boy and girl who could only stand petrified and watch as her large hands slopped up the meal from the filthy street.

"My only food!" The old lady wailed. "Do you know how hard it was to get this much? For my husband and I this would have been enough, and you've ruined it!"

The little girl was sobbing and clutching what looked like a kitten in her arms, and her knobby knees were trembling. "You would have trampled him!"

The woman stumbled to her feet with a growl. "I don't care about that damn cat! We're all starving here, how do you think you'd have fed the nasty animal."

Kiba felt himself creep closer to the haggard old woman and terrified children, Hinata and Shino pressed close to his sides and Akamaru between his and Hinata's legs. They watched as the civilian crowd was startled by the appearance of a chuunin, one that worked for Root, as signified by the white bandana tied around his left bicep. It was almost unanimous, the way the crowd turned their heads and looked away.

"Is there trouble here?" The chuunin's voice was rough as he addressed the woman.

She nodded her grey head, lips twisting in a snarl as she pointed at the little boy and girl. "They were running around, causing a ruckus. I get one pot, every three days, and they made me trip and drop it. I bet they wanted to steal it for themselves too!"

At that, the little boy stepped in front of the girl, his eyes impossibly large. "We didn't! We just wanted to save Koko! She was going to step on him."

The chuunin sighed and narrowed his eyes at the children. "She says you caused undue disturbance and tried to steal the food. Tell the truth or you'll get an extra day in detention."

The boy's hands started shaking as he stared for a moment at the chuunin. "I—I tripped her. To save Koko and steal her food! We're just hungry, and we're sorry. It was just me though! Not my sister. Please."

The woman shrieked, "It was both of them! Get them both off the streets, two less mouths for the soup kitchens to feed."

Shino brushed past Kiba, stalking toward the chuunin and civilians. Kiba made a grab for his arm but was too late. Hinata sucked in a breath between her teeth and they both followed.

"Chuunin-san, I believe that you're quite nearly forcing the children to confess to this woman's accusations. I believe they really were just trying to save the kitten."

The chuunin eyed Shino, his gaze lingering on the high collar of his coat and his dark glasses. When he turned his eyes to Hinata and Kiba, taking in Hinata's pale eyes and Kiba's triangular clan tattoos, his nose wrinkled in disgust. Kiba gripped Shino's shoulder and pulled him back firmly, wondering _what have we gotten ourselves in to? I'm supposed to be the reckless one._

"Regardless," the chuunin sniffed. "I must send someone to detention—got to keep order, you know?"

But Shino was adamant. "It is unfair. They're young and it was an accident."

"Did you see it happen, genin?"

Shino was tall, taller than Kiba and was quite intimidating, but that didn't seem to matter to the chuunin or the civilians. Someone in the crowd sneered and yelled, "Stay out of it, ninja!"

Hinata made a small sound in the back of her throat. She cautiously stepped forward and gave the chuunin a light bow. "Chuunin-san, we are sorry to intrude on your job. My teammate just believes that more investigation should have been done."

The chuunin scowled and the crowd grumbled. Kiba wanted to pinch himself. _What are my idiot teammates doing?_ He too stepped forward. "We'll be on our way, Chuunin-san."

He was practically dragging Hinata and Shino past the old woman and two children when he heard the little boy cry out as the chuunin grabbed his arm. Guilt flooded him as he noticed the disappointed and horrified looks he was receiving from his teammates and Akamaru. He turned back to the boy and girl, both pairs of dark eyes in too thin faces stared pleadingly at him. _Courage and pride and pack._ How would he ever become a good clan leader if he couldn't stand up for what was right, right now? Kiba swallowed around the lump in his throat. Hana-nee would've done something incredibly brave and rash but would've gotten her way in the end if she were in this situation.

"Actually, Chuunin-san, we'll be on our way after you give them a fair investigation."

The chuunin rolled his eyes. "Life is unfair, clan kid, but you wouldn't know that, would you? Look, someone causes a ruckus, someone gets punished. If they don't the civilians might think more mayhem is allowed and then this place will really turn into a cesspool. Don't get involved here."

For the first time since Shino interrupted, the old woman spoke. "Honestly, I think you filthy ninja are the ones causing a ruckus right now. Shouldn't have wandered down here and gotten your sandals dirty."

The other civilians in the crowd laughed and jeered. A man with stringy brown hair near them smiled. "You caused a ruckus, you get punished. I think one of you should see how detention is anyway, live like us for a while."

More jeers were heard. Kiba turned around, Hinata and Shino were standing back by the children, and when he met their eyes' they shared the same overwhelmed look. The chuunin let out another sigh.

"Kid, where's your sensei?"

"No!" The brown-haired civilian shouted. "Don't just let their _sensei_ take care of it—they have to follow the same rules we do!"

Shouts and chants started in the crowd, which was quickly becoming a mob. Frantically, Kiba turned to his teammates again, but there were already dirty civilians separating them. He could hear Akamaru barking from somewhere in the crowd but couldn't find him. The chuunin stepped closer, and his rank breath brushed passed Kiba's face as he whispered.

"It's a fine line between keeping order with the pretense of punishment and pleasing the masses. I'm taking you to detention. Stay near the front and you'll be fine."

The chuunin dragged Kiba on top of an awning above one of the shops and made a show of placing seals on the backs of his hands before _shunshin-_ ing them away. Kiba could have sworn that in that split second before he was twisted away, he saw a flash of familiar red eyes on a roof across from him.

Then he was being marched up to a cavernous stone building, two heavy metal doors opening to show nothing but darkness beyond, and he was tossed in.


	17. Chapter 16

**New chapter, yay! Hope everyone is doing okay, again this story is dark-just a warning if you're not up for reading it. But if you do, thanks for reading! And thank you to all your reviews!**

* * *

Now, Naruto totally got it. What Haku had said. About fighting to protect someone precious. As he ran toward Sasuke, who was coincidentally fighting Haku, he felt a thrumming in his veins and a ringing in his ears that was much more powerful than when he was just fighting out of fear and survival instinct. It was like there was an angry venom pumping from his heart and making his blood boil, it was tinged with no small amount of terror too, but it wasn't for himself, or fear of a more powerful enemy—it was fear for his friend. Sasuke just looked…small next to the older boy. While his normally dark eyes were a bright red and he was moving almost faster than Naruto could see, there were several senbon piercing him and it was clearly painful.

Barely sparing a glance for Sakura, who was guarding Tazuna and the other workers, and Kakashi, who was battling with Haku's master, Naruto just leapt and jumped into the fray between Sasuke and Haku.

Sasuke hissed and swung his arm at the mirrors surrounding them. "Idiot, now we're both trapped."

Naruto gave him a glare. "I'm just trying to help, Teme, there's not much I could've done out there."

The other boy just turned and put his shoulders against Naruto's so they were back to back. Haku slipped out of one of the icy mirrors and studied them for a minute before quickly disappearing. Naruto shoved them both down, senbon shooting toward them and barely missing.

It wasn't like fighting with Shisui, where the skill and power was tipped so far in the older boy's direction that Naruto was just an aid, an extra weapon Shisui used. With Sasuke, Naruto had to work together with him, they had to watch each other and tag-team their enemy. He had to work harder.

He swept up a kunai to knock more senbon from their deadly path, but some still got stuck in his forearm. As Naruto quickly tried to yank them out, he felt Sasuke's shoulder push on his to twist them out of the way of more of the needles. He heard a clang from Sasuke's tanto as he engaged in a short fight with Haku before pushing him back with a katon jutsu. As more senbon and a few explosive tags came from Naruto's direction, he quickly leaned back and pushed him and Sasuke through the still sizzling air from the katon and away from the tags.

They separated as they ducked and rolled from the explosion, the closeness of it making Naruto's ears ring. The force of it propelled him further, and his back slammed into a wall of ice. Naruto forced his eyes open quickly but he was dizzy, and the collision had knocked the wind out of him.

 _You've got to get away from the mirror_ he told himself. _It's dangerous, get away!_ Shakily, Naruto reached his arm out and started pushing himself up. He craned his head to look for Sasuke and saw the other boy rushing toward him, his red eyes wide and spinning, and suddenly he was knocked down again by his friend.

Confusion only gripped Naruto for a second before he was rolling Sasuke off of him, sputtering at the sight of dozens of senbon sticking out from the dark-haired boy's neck and shoulders and back.

"Sa-Sasuke _what_? Why?!" He reached his hands toward him but was too afraid to touch.

Sasuke's eyes were dark again as he gazed up at Naruto. "I…just moved."

"But you don't even _know_ me."

A breathy laugh escaped Sasuke. "I thought…we've been friends for weeks. S-since we killed the Root nin together—you helped me…"

His voice grew weak at the end and his eyes drooped lower. Naruto's hands shook but he placed them on Sasuke's cheeks. "No, no don't—"

As the other boy's breaths grew slower, Naruto found his own quickening. Something warm was curling in his gut, and flashes of another pale, dark-haired and dark-eyed boy was superimposing with the one in front of him, dredged up from the deepest pits of his memory. _Monsters do not have friends._ He felt the rough wood of the shovel making his palms bleed as he kept digging up dirt. A hole six feet down but only three feet long. His nails felt sharp as he clenched his fists. _Have you learned your lesson?_ Jinchuuriki have nothing.

Naruto faintly heard Haku ask him, "Is this the first precious person you've seen die?"

The warmth inside him burned hotter. _I have anger. Kyuubi—help me._

When Naruto looked back at Haku, it was through a haze of red.

* * *

Waking up, Naruto felt a peculiar shakiness he hadn't felt in a long time. His hands were sticky, and his head was heavy, but he opened his eyes to a blue sky and Kakashi's stern muttering.

"Sakura, get to it and heal him. Naruto, sit up. You're going to use that heavy chakra of yours and help."

Naruto gazed dumbly at the man for a minute, but at the look in his eyes, one fiery red and the other steely grey, he scrambled toward the pink-haired girl. When his eyes landed on Sasuke, the other boy still and pale, he felt his stomach drop.

Kakashi grunted at him. "He's not dead. But he needs to be treated soon. Do _not_ do this often, raw jinchuuriki chakra is poisonous and scalding, it will hurt. But Sakura needs more power than she has right now, and more power than I can give her."

Naruto couldn't move. The pit in his stomach opened further and he felt sick. Unclenching his jaw, he took a breath in, keeping his head down as he reached into his kunai pouch for a small slip of paper.

"It…won't hurt her. I can do it with a seal."

Kakashi paused beside him, but Naruto refused to look at him. He found a pre-prepared seal, one with ugly twists and turns of black ink. He noticed he had gotten bloody fingerprints on his pouch and the paper and tried to wipe his hands off on the grass, but the drying gore still stubbornly remained in the grooves of his palms and fingers and under his nails. Placing the seal against his palm, he held his hand out for Sakura to take. She stared at him with slightly fearful green eyes, and then at his dirty hand, but she steeled herself and clasped his fingers. Slowly, he let the Kyuubi chakra pool in his hand before pushing it through the seal and into Sakura's.

The girl let out a gasp, her eyes wide as she stared at Naruto. She started shaking, but not with pain, rather with raw energy filling her core. Naruto could feel Kakashi's stare too and hunched his shoulders. After deeming having given her enough, he dropped the hold, the little paper was burnt black and fluttered to the ground. His throat was dry when he spoke.

"When you touch him with that chakra, it will burn him."

Sakura just stared at him before turning to remove the senbon piercing Sasuke. When she channeled the borrowed chakra, her fingers lit up from within like a burning coal. Kakashi's heavy presence next to him grew denser, demanding an explanation. Naruto finally looked at him from the corner of his eye.

"Danzo-sama used to have me do that…feed him jinchuuriki chakra or store it in a scroll…h-he used it for…uh punishment."

Kakashi stiffened, but after several minutes finally relaxed. He tentatively put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Sakura won't do that. She doesn't mean to hurt Sasuke as she heals him. Friends don't hurt friends, Naruto."

Naruto gazed at the two genin and shuddered.

* * *

Shisui was somewere underground, and somewhere near Kusagakure. He was using a mixture of his sharingan and an echolocation jutsu to pick his way through the caves and between rocks. He was feeling slightly claustrophobic and had to keep reminding himself that he _would_ see the sky again, he was _not_ back in the awful cell he'd shared with Naruto.

The only sound he could hear was the trickling of water of an underground lake or river, and the dripping of more water from the stalactites. At the beginning of his subsurface journey, there had been old wooden bunks with no bedrolls and a few supplies like rusty kunai and empty ink wells. There had been drawings on the cave walls, and he'd risked a katon jutsu to study them. Years of smoke had already blackened the cave ceilings, but the mostly legible drawings depicted an ancient form of the Uchiha fan that Shisui knew dated back to the warring-clans era. There was poetry and pictures of animals and the Uchiha family and warriors that had inhabited the cave and the battles they fought… _what were they doing all the way out here?_ It would have seemed strange that they were living underground too, but the pictures depicted one of the shinobi having a strong earth-natured chakra and Shisui shrugged it off.

Despite the eeriness, all this told Shisui he was finally on the right track. He'd passed through the lived-in section and continued on, and on. It was hard to stay calm in the quiet darkness, he might have gone insane if he hadn't had the sharingan and echolocation, and in the periods where he had to take a break because he'd been walking and climbing so long it was starting to put a strain on his chakra, Shisui could feel his nerves get the best of him. The path was winding, and any normal sense of cardinal directions was lost in the underground.

Occasionally, he'd use a katon to check that he was still following the smoke trail on the ceiling, but he didn't want to keep it for too long, afraid of attracting anyone that might also be in the cave…anyone other than the ghosts.

He paused suddenly when he realized there was no way to move forward. In front of him was just a wall. After listening for any other sounds and trying to sense any other chakra, Shisui formed the hand signs to light a fire in his palm. Studying the slimy cave walls, he looked up and let out a soft curse. Above his head was a horizontal slit between one rock and the next, and of course the smoke trail went through it. Sometimes, Shisui hated being a shinobi.

Letting the jutsu go, Shisui reached his hands up to grasp onto the damp rock and pull himself up. He had to swing his left foot up and sort of pull and shimmy himself along, and he grunted as the cold stone beneath him scraped at his cheek. When he was finally through, he breathed a few deep breaths, and again checked that there was hopefully no one in this new room.

Lighting another fire, Shisui moved his arm out to see what was in front of him. Unfortunately, the light from the fire wasn't far reaching like a shinobi flashlight would have been, but he could see enough to be taken aback by the beauty of the large cavern. Pale stalactites littered the ceiling like crooked teeth, but they glittered with damp. There was a steep drop from the ledge he was crouched on that led to what must have once been an extremely ancient drainage ditch from when the cave flooded.

He noted large footprints several inches deep slogging through the mud, and what looked like tracks of something being dragged. Shisui gulped. There was no way to tell how old the footprints were, the mud would forever remain unchanged as water here didn't evaporate, and the last flood to rush through the cavern to disturb it could have been a millennium ago. Shisui checked the smoke trail again before putting out his light. _There's no one here right now._ He took another calming breath and fished for a ration bar to eat quietly and quickly before moving on.

After more walking and climbing into different caverns and channels connecting the caves, Shisui noticed he was finally going up again, nearer to the surface. The rocks started to become dryer, the air warmer, and his heart was beating with relief at the thought of getting out of the caves. But his palms started to sweat at the thought of what might be his destination.

He remembered Fugaku's announcement of Obito's death. His older cousin, one who wasn't always treated well by the clan, had always had a soft spot for Shisui. Perhaps it was because Shisui was a troublemaker in school and reminded Obito of himself. Maybe it was as simple as both were orphans. Whatever the reason, Shisui had adored Obito. He knew he was goofy; he knew he was too scatter brained and easily excited to put his hidden intelligence to all of its use. But Obito never failed to have the right idea of how to be a good person. He _always_ did the right thing.

After learning Obito had died, Shisui had felt alone. Itachi had been young, and just had his sharingan force-awakened in a battle he never should have been a part of. He was the youngest chuunin since Kakashi, and they just kept tossing him on mission after mission, and when it was clear the war was winding down and he was given time at home, he wandered the Uchiha grounds not knowing what to do. He often found himself at Obito's little house on the outskirts of the compound, and he'd just sit in the grass out front, gazing at the wooden door but unable to go in.

Imagine the shock he'd had when he saw an aged and scarred Obito-nii on the night of the Kyuubi attack. The glow of the chakra monster had been gone for not too long before Shisui was running through the forest toward where it'd last been seen. _Kakashi and the Hokage and the Sandaime and Naruto-kun are still out there. None of them have returned yet._ He knew Shikaku and Genma and Asuma and other jounin were behind him, but even as a chuunin his shunshin was fast.

He'd ran and jumped into another shunshin and when he landed Obito had just swirled into existence in front of him, pulling Shisui up short. He was too stunned to say anything. Obito was silent, a shimmer of tears on his scarred face as he stared at Shisui. He couldn't move as the older boy approached him. He would've thought he was a ghost if he hadn't felt his rough kiss on his forehead. He almost cried at Obito's whisper _everything's about to change._ He wanted to say _everything already has_ but his cousin swirled away again and only Shikaku passing him made him shake out of his reverie.

So Obito hadn't died. It was the one mystery and one lead he had on his target. Someone had saved his cousin, and they hadn't gone through the cave the front way, where the rocks and fallen and crushed him and prevented anyone from escaping that way easily. Shisui had followed long forgotten paths of old Uchiha hideouts and bases that he'd once studied with Itachi years ago, and the one at the edge of Kusagakure was nearest the Kannabi Bridge. It was tedious but doable.

When Shisui reached the end of the cave, near the rock fall and so close to fresh air he grimly noted there was still blood on the ground and skeletons of Iwa shinobi in the back of the cave. He looked at the footprints in the dust, they weren't as messy and smudged as the ones in the deep mud previously. An odd sensation crawled up his spine as he realized the soles of the sandals were of an older style than those worn in the Third Shinobi War. He memorized the scene with his sharingan before attaching himself to a wall to climb away from the dust. Shisui lastly used a soft and controlled wind jutsu to blow his own footprints away, leaving no trace of his own presence. He dreaded the walk back through the cave system, but hopefully it would be easier, with less uncertainty of what he would find. He could distract himself with theories about his target.

When Mikoto-san had given him his mission, her mouth had an unusual twist to it. Wry and worried. _Find the man the Hokage fears. We have reason to believe it is a traitorous Uchiha._


End file.
